Coronavirus – Advice to Customers
Updated 24 March 2020
In light of the current crisis around the Coronavirus pandemic and, in response to Government advice and guidelines, we want to make you aware of some changes we’re making to the way we work and to the services we provide to you, our customers.
The well-being, health and safety of all customers, contractors and staff is our first priority. However, we also want to ensure that our essential services to customers continue as normally as they possibly can at this difficult time.
We’re making some changes to limit the spread of the virus, the most significant of which is that we will, for the time being, only be responding to emergency repair requests. This is so that our staff and contractors can concentrate on responding to the most urgent repairs and so that, in order to protect everyone, fewer home visits need to be made. We are also suspending all non-urgent home visits by our staff.
We would ask that, during the current crisis, you only report emergency repairs. Please make a note of any non-emergency repairs you want to report when the situation improves. This will free up our staff to deal with other, more urgent priorities.
If you’re having difficulties paying your rent or you have any concerns about your ability to pay your rent during the current crisis, please contact us for advice – we’re here to help.
The Government’s health advice is that, if you live alone and have symptoms of the virus (a high temperature or a new continuous cough), however mild, you must stay at home and away from other people for 7 days from the day your symptoms first appear. If you live with others, and you or one of them have these symptoms, then all household members must stay at home for 14 days. This advice is in addition to the most recent Government order to stay at home except in very specific circumstances.
If you or a member of your household is showing any symptoms and is self-isolating, or if you or anyone in your household has been confirmed as having Covid-19, please make us aware on 01494 480340 so that we don’t put you, our staff or our contractors at risk.
We also understand the heightened concern you will have about people coming into your home and we are therefore cancelling all non-emergency repairs orders that have already been issued. We will notify you if this affects you. It is, however, very important that you allow us access to your home to carry out any safety-critical gas and electricity safety checks/work.
If you contact us to report an emergency repair or to request any other service requiring an urgent visit by a member of our staff, we will ask you some brief questions about your health. Please don’t be offended by these questions, which we will be asking ALL of our customers before arranging a visit to your home. It’s important that everyone works together to reduce the spread of the virus.
In line with the latest Government advice, we’ve made arrangements for all our staff to work from home and to avoid all non-essential, personal contact with customers by using email or telephone instead. Our office is now closed to customers and to members of the public. Please contact us by email (info@bucksha.co.uk) or telephone (01494 480340). We will continue to monitor the situation carefully and will provide any further service updates on this page, so please check back regularly. All the latest information, advice and facts about the Coronavirus are available on the gov.uk website .
Finally, whilst observing the Government’s latest order to stay at home, we would also please ask you to keep an eye out for your neighbours during this difficult time, particularly the elderly or vulnerable. Should you have any concerns about their welfare, please let us know and we will try to contact them or alert other agencies to try to help.
The situation is clearly changing very rapidly, so we’ll keep in touch and continue to review the service levels we’re able to offer on a daily basis. Please rest assured that we’ll do as much as we can to minimise the impact on our services to customers but please bear with us whilst we all adjust to a different way of working over the coming weeks and months.
Thank You.
