Our approach to Coronavirus

This page will be updated frequently to provide one place for you to access information about how we are managing the coronavirus and are keeping you, our colleagues and the general public safe.

At home shouldn't mean at risk. If you or someone you know might be at risk from domestic abuse contact our specialist team in confidence by calling 01935 404500. Alternatively refer to the Government's advice pages #YouAreNotAlone.

Please take a look at our FAQs before you contact us

An overview of all services that are available right now can be found here

Update to our services: 1 July 2020

For your safety, and following government guidelines, we are continuing to restart our services. We hope you understand that we have a list of cancelled repairs, postponed lettings and other jobs that we need to address first, so we will be restarting services in phases.

We would like to thank you for your continued patience at this time and apologise for any inconvenience caused as a result of our reduced services.

When services do return, they will look a little different at first to make sure we continue to keep you safe. It is also important to note that while we do have a plan, things may change if the country goes back into lockdown or if we are unable to carry out a service safely.

We will keep you up-to-date on our website so you know exactly what services are available, how to access them and what we are doing to keep you safe.

Repairs

A visual of our full repairs recovery can be found here.

From the 1 July, you can report repairs by contacting us on My Yarlington or over the phone. If you had a repair cancelled during lockdown, you will have been contacted by us, asking if you still need the repair. If you have not responded, please do so as soon as possible.

Throughout July, we are only booking appointments and carrying out repairs that are an emergency (those that have the potential to cause danger to a person or damage to the property), gas servicing or for repairs that were cancelled during lockdown that are external or will take less than one hour to complete. This is to reduce the amount of time we spend in your home for everyone’s safety. You will be contacted by us when you are able to book a date and time for your repair.

From 1 August, we will allow appointments to be booked for external or communal repairs or those that will take less than one hour to complete inside homes. This is to reduce the amount of time we spend in your home for everyone’s safety.

From 1 September, we will resume our full repairs service, allowing appointments for all repairs, including those that could not be booked earlier because they will take over an hour to complete.

Unfortunately, in order for us to focus on our list of repairs and to keep customers and colleagues safe, we have made the decision to postpone any internal planned works until 2021, this includes kitchen, bathroom and boiler installations. Anyone who has expected planned works to take place this year will receive a letter with further details.

Lettings

We have begun our lettings again, except for our Extra Care schemes. For property viewings, we will have strict measures and guidance in place including social distancing, limiting the number of people in a property and minimising touch points (like keeping doors open).

Right now, we aren’t allowing mutual exchanges as we continue to review how we can restart these safely. We will update you as soon as we can.

Other services

We have restarted our tenancy management as well as estate management and housing estate visits with reduced staff and additional safety measures in place, aiming to return to full estate inspections over the next few weeks.

During lockdown we have been dealing with some serious cases of anti-social behaviour and have now started more of our work relating to anti-social behaviour and breach of tenancy where possible. Whilst we may not be able to manage all cases right now, where we can, we will carry out visits outside or on customers’ doorsteps, following social distancing and with colleagues wearing the relevant personal protective equipment for everyone’s safety.

Our support services continue to be available over the phone or online. We are still carrying out welfare checks with our Independent Living customers and our Buddy Club continues to support customers who are isolated during this difficult time and we continue to offer financial advice and employment support. If you are struggling with your finances or need help getting into employment please get in touch and we will be happy to help.