So that's it then, lockdown. No links today but a few notes on the actions we will now take, what you can expect from us and what we are asking from you.

Viewings. Yesterday we asked our professional body the Association of Residential Letting Agents for clarification on viewings. The Chief Executive responded personally late in the evening; Whilst I have to stress that businesses must make their own commercial decisions, I would suggest that physical viewings should probably cease for the foreseeable future. A big thank you to David Cox, chief executive of ARLA who works tirelessly to support the industry and is our finest ambassador and advisor.

We agree, we will not be doing face to face viewings for the next 3 weeks

Next a thank you. First to our amazing staff team, ever dedicated and resourceful, for working hard in the background to keep the business running as smoothly as possible in unprecedented times, often offering to come in or going beyond the terms of your employment. You are all incredible and I cannot thank you enough. I will do everything I can to ensure safe working.

Tenants. A huge thank you to all of you who have been polite, understanding and caring in your communications with us, it makes more difference than you can ever know. We all need to be kind to each other in these difficult times and many of you are showing that you have got the message. if anything good comes of this we will all wake up to a kinder more caring world.

Signing up for September 2020 We are working remotely but able to access most of the documentation, please contact us on alwin.oliver@btopenworld.com as this is easier to access if you have any questions about this process

Rent. We want to make it clear that where a tenant has suffered a reduction in income due to COVID 19 we will do everything we can to come to an arrangement for you to repay the arrears over a period of time (but please pay what you can as soon as you are able). As we have to pass details of unpaid rent on to landlords and mortgage companies, we will be asking for some proof. Bear with us, that is the way the world works even in these uncertain times. We owe a duty of care to our landlords and they in turn have to provide evidence to their mortgage companies to ask for a deferral.

Students asking to end the tenancy early. We have had a number of requests and understand a number of you may have gone home, either as a temporary measure or not expecting to return at this stage. While we understand the question, but please remember that you have signed a legally binding contract your landlords are depending on the income from their property. While they can seek to defer mortgage payments landlords will have to repay it eventually and they still expect an income. In essence our job is to pay them their pension, they having invested in property for this purpose.

If you are considering asking for early release, or are reading this because you have asked, there is no really good reason why a student in receipt of a loan or other arrangement in hand before you moved in should not continue to pay the rent. Looked at another way, because you are asking to breach a legally binding contract, every request has to be recorded and responded to. As our remote working does not allow us to do this from home at present the result is a member of our team has to go to the office to deal with it. Put simply asking to defer puts that person at unnecessary risk and we ask that you just accept that the contract stands and pay in the usual way. Please pay the April rent as it falls due and consider paying the balance of the tenancy amount when your last loan payment hits your bank, that way it is done and you don’t have to worry about it. Check your tenancy end date when making the payment.

Ultimately if you fail to pay rent we will be instructed to ask for payment from your guarantor and if that is declined we will seek to recover the sums via the county courts, a process that could add our legal costs to the judgement debt and impact on your credit rating We hope never to have to do that, but please understand that there will be no exceptions.

Landlords. We really value your business without which we would not exist, but please bear with us if payments and other actions are a bit behind. We will do our best to get payments to you as soon as can be administratively managed.

Safety and maintenance. Our gas engineers and electricians are working normally but we ask that if they have to visit that you maintain social distancing, so please open the door, verify their identity (VERY IMPORTANT) and then allow them to go about their work. This means that they will usually be alone in the room where they are working.

For other maintenance issues, we will be working to the housing health & Safety rating system (Housing Act 2004) attending all CAT 1 hazards as soon as possible and CAT 2 on a need by need basis, depending on contractor availability usually within 7-14 days. We will suspend all minor maintenance jobs, for example fences, borders and gardens. If you have locked yourself our, broken something or blocked a drain we will usually ask you to resolve these matters if they are your responsibility. If you cannot manage these things yourself we will do our best to provide you with a contractor number, it will be your responsibility to pay for this service. For genuine emergencies I am on 07711 669285 but emergencies only please.

Thank you all whoever your are, tenants, landlords or facebook friends. in our next update we will say a bit more about shared living and some mental health top tips, but for now thank you so much for reading this update, keep well and keep safe

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