After the positive news that the government has produced a road map to ease current lockdown restrictions, we wanted to take this opportunity to keep you up to date with our services. Our aim is to return to normal services as soon as it is possible, and we will do this in a safe and planned way but our customers and colleagues' safety remain our top priority.
We have reviewed how we provide services in response to the government's guidance and will continue to review the guidelines to help us make the right decisions to protect you, our colleagues and those who work with us. For the latest government advice please click here.
Our services
You can find a list of the repairs we can complete here.
Available and resuming services
We are continuing to run a full repairs service, prioritising emergency and urgent repairs. We are still working to catch up on the backlog of repairs which is currently expected to take between 6-8 weeks. For routine repairs, we will look to provide you with our earliest possible appointment date, and we appreciate your continued patience at this time.
For help with simple things like resetting your boiler and other handy tips you can also use our solve an issue page to resolve simple issues in your home.
Our Customer Service team
Our teams are still working from home where possible and as government restrictions relax, our advisors will transition back into our offices. We appreciate you may be experiencing some delays in getting through to our teams and we understand this can be frustrating. Unfortunately, we are still getting a small number of abusive calls from customers and whilst we empathise with every customer given the current situation, we cannot accept abuse of our team. We would please ask that you are understanding and respectful when speaking with them.
Are you worried about rent payments?
We appreciate that with all the challenges we’re facing, you may be worried about your rent payments. Please talk to us if you are struggling so that we can work with you to agree an affordable payment plan which considers your individual circumstances. Please speak to your income officer, if you have any concerns. You can find their details here.
We know that this is still a challenging time for many of you, so we want you to know that we are here to support you. Since the start of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic our teams have been proactively making contact with customers who we believe may be struggling to ensure that they have the support they need. If you are worried at any time or, concerned about a neighbour, please contact us.
Kitchen and bathroom replacements
We are gradually restarting our replacement programme for kitchens and bathrooms. Our teams will be working over the coming weeks to plan this work and we ask that you wait for our teams to contact you to discuss your personal replacements.
Moving home and mutual exchanges
If the current government timetable continues as planned, we aim to be able to send out new applications for mutual exchanges from Thursday 1 April. However, these applications may take longer than the normal process depending on demand. If you have already applied for a mutual exchange and this has been processed, then this will proceed in the normal way but, there may be a delay. Where possible, we will continue to use technology to help with digital viewings and tenancy signups to keep both you and our teams safe.
Which services will remain on hold?
To protect you and to reduce the risk of catching Covid-19, communal areas such as lounges and guest rooms will remain closed in line with the current government timetable. We appreciate that these communal areas have been closed for some time, and we hope to be able to open them as soon as all restrictions are lifted.
Our community development group activities will also remain on hold at this time.
Updating our systems
From 27 May-2 June we are making important updates to our computer systems. We will be unable to provide a full repairs service to our customers on these dates and will only be able to receive and attend emergency repairs. We kindly ask that from 27 May-2 June please only report emergency repairs to us. For all non-emergency repairs please contact us after the above dates.
We will continue to keep you updated on any changes to our services, we appreciate that this has been a challenging time for all of us over this past 12 months, but we are all hopeful that the timeline from the government will enable us all to start to think about the positives of reconnecting with family and friends and returning to a more normal way of life.
You can find all of our latest news and coronavirus updates here on our website, and you can follow us on Facebook.
Thank you for your patience.