Dear All
You may have heard about the “rent holiday” during the current situation. We would like to take this opportunity to explain what this means. We have not seen the legislation with the details but we know the direction of travel. The government recognise that some people who are ill, self-isolating or even lose their jobs as a result of the current problems may not be able to pay rent. Obviously anyone who loses their job is encouraged to claim benefits at the earliest opportunity. Rent will remain due but landlords will not be able to start a court action for rent arrears during the three month period. Therefore as rent remains due rent should be paid if at all possible. As it remains due, even if you cannot afford all the rent due to reduced income, please ensure you pay what you can as it will reduce the amount of rent you have to catch up on when this rule is lifted in three months’ time. The proposal does not take away the responsibility for the rent, it simply gives a little more time to pay before court action is started.
It will help us if you stay engaged and let us know your circumstance so that we can interact with you in the most appropriate way.
In our business we meet with people on a daily basis, in the office, in homes and in the street. The issue of COVID 19 is in the forefront of our minds, we do not want to unnecessarily be exposed or expose our staff, tenants, landlords and customers to risk.
Part of our business means that we visit our managed properties several times a year. Whilst we will continue to do so we will only do so when are clear that the risks presented to tenants or to our own staff are kept to an absolute minimum. We will be introducing some changes to our procedure as below:
* If you are due a visit from our staff you will ordinarily receive an email in advance which we ask you to respond to, this email will, from today, also ask you to answer some basic questions about your recent travels and your health.
* In addition, we will now telephone you 24 hours prior to our visit to reiterate the questions asked in the first email.
* If you or someone in the household is feeling unwell or is self-isolating, if you or someone in the household has recently travelled outside of the UK or has flown within the past 2 weeks, please let us know.
* If any occupier are over 70 or have underlying health conditions or fall into any other vulnerable category then again please let us know.
* If you are not going to be present during our visit then the risk is minimal and we will attend, if you are going to be present, we may choose to cancel the visit.
More information is available on the NHS website https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/
Thank you for your understanding,
