Our Policy For Covid Safe Working

INTRODUCTION

The most important thing is to ensure that upon return to our offices, we are not increasing the risk of a second round of the virus and a further lockdown, and that we continue to do all we can to safeguard everyone we work with and for. This will ultimately mean changes to our processes and how our teams operate. The following sections outline how we will achieve that, and we welcome any suggestions at any time.

SECTIONS:

1: People

2: Premises

3: Valuations

4: Viewings

5: Compliance with AML and Right to Rent

6: Property Management

7: Links

People

We will check on the health of the people working for us. We will have a one to one with each member of our team to establish they are ‘healthy’ to return to work and complete a ‘health assessment’ form.

As part of our morning meeting, we will carry out a daily check in to ensure no health issues have changed.

Our premises

We will have prepared our office. When our teams return, we will accommodate the 2-metre social distancing rule. This may mean fewer ‘desks’ or work stations to allow this to happen and we will limit the number of visitors to one party of two at any one time by prior appointment.

We intend to keep face to face contact to a minimum and where possible our staff will work side by side with a minimum 2-meter distance between them rather than face to face.

We will designate desks to be used to talk to customers and ensure they are cleaned after each visit.

We have purchased ample supply of hand-gel; anti-bacterial wipes and sprays; soap; tissues; and hand sprays. We will always make sure that these are readily available on each desk for staff, visitors and customers to use.

We will have a regular cleaning routine throughout the day and notify all staff to vacate when we start the cleaning process. This will include: Desks, chair arms, keyboards, mouse, screens, staplers, pens, photocopier controls, drawer handles, phones, mobile phones, key cabinets, filing cabinets, door handles and card machines where we take card payments.

We will also encourage staff to wash hands with hot water and soap more frequently than before and make sure supplies are stocked up in washrooms along with clean towels.

We will keep our front door locked so that we can control the number of visitors, this will provide extra assurance to our team and anyone visiting our office.

We will lead by example and keep social distancing measures in place all the time, this includes when conducting morning meetings, when preparing refreshments, visits to the lavatories and allocating lunch breaks, all of which will be staggered.

Valuations

Estate Agency is a ‘people’ business and requires interaction with sellers, buyers, applicants, landlords, tenants, and contractors to name but a few. How can we provide a safe environment for all concerned?

We will continue to offer our digital valuation and viewing options. The valuation enables us to complete a valuation in accordance with the seller’s instructions, either virtually or face to face.

Where a face to face meeting is required, we will use a health assessment form to assess any risk associated with each individual visit and confirm that we have also carried out an assessment of our team member visiting you. Remember this is a two-way process so please make sure you disclose to us any possible symptoms when we ask you, in the same way that we would ensure that anyone we send to your property is free from such symptoms. This is designed to reassure everyone involved.

Where we do conduct a valuation, we will respectfully avoid any handshaking or physical contact, keeping our two-metre distance, and wear protective gloves. We may use face masks if recommended by the government, and of course we will if these are mandatory.

We will demonstrate all our marketing via digital resources rather than leaving any paper documents at your property, all of which will be followed up with an email.

This goes against the ‘grain’, but we will keep the time in face to face contact to a minimum and respectfully decline any coffees/refreshments you may be kind enough to offer.

We will explain to you the actions our firm are taking to reduce the risk of spreading Coronavirus – reassuring you is paramount to us.

When we return to our vehicles after each appointment we will safely dispose of our gloves and use hand-gel to give our hands a good wash and wipe any equipment we have used during the visit.

When we arrive back at the office, we will be sure to wash our hands with soap and water before we do anything else. We will introduce signs to ensure there are plenty of reminders.

At the end of each day and after our last appointment we will give our steering wheel, gear lever, handbrake, and all controls a wipe down with anti-bacterial wipes.

All staff have been advised to never attend a valuation appointment if they are feeling unwell.

Where we receive the instruction to sell your property, we acknowledge that all other aspects of our legal obligations are still in force.

EPCs can continue to be provided if no Covid-19 Issues exist, and the assessor operates in accordance with Public Health England guidance.

Viewings

We will make full use of our virtual viewing tools and only arrange full viewings where the buyer or tenant is genuinely interested in the property.

We will always carry out the health-check on all viewers intending to visit the property.

We will ensure we find out who will be attending the viewing and limit the number of people to no more than two at any one time. Where possible we would ask the owner(s) and their family to vacate the property for the duration of the appointment which we will do our best to limit to 15 minutes.

If the property is occupied, we will check on the health of the seller and all those in residence before arranging the appointment.

Where a physical viewing does takes place, we will respectfully avoid any handshaking or physical contact and remember to keep our two-metre distance. We will wear protective gloves and avoid any paper documents. We may use face masks if recommended by the government, and of course we will if these are mandatory. As our agent will be wearing protective gloves, only the agent will be permitted to open doors to show potential buyers and tenants the rooms and storage etc.

When we return to our vehicles after each appointment we will safely dispose of our gloves and use hand-gel to give our hands a good wash and wipe any equipment we have used during the visit.

If the property is vacant and we are using a key, we will wipe the key when it is taken from the key cabinet, wipe it after the viewing and again before it is placed back in the key cabinet.

We will never travel in the same car as anyone else, always meeting viewers at the property.

Anti Money Laundering (AML) and Right to Rent

AML:

We are still required to complete your legal requirements to confirm the identity of sellers and buyers, and landlords and tenants in some cases. This should be completed before a business relationship commences.

If we do need to take actual documents, remember the requirement is that this is completed where we can see the individual and the document at the same time – we will wear protective gloves when handling paper documents.

We will ask if you have ‘certified copies’ which you could send supply as evidence of identity.

If the customers are visiting our office, we will complete the health assessment before they are permitted into the office, if they have already done so previously, we will check there has been no change.

Any face to face visits in the office will only be undertaken where 2-meter social distancing can be adhered to, or behind a designated desk with a protective screen.

Where for any health reason none of the above is possible in order to obtain documents then HMRC have not provided any provision, we suggest that we arrange a face time/zoom contact meeting to see the individual and the document. In this case we would like you to scan across documents and we will clearly certify the method of testing we have used and the reason why.

As soon as possible we will then arrange a face to face inspection and update our records. Our Money Laundering Officer will always sign off any request to proceed on this basis. This will only be used as a last resort and we would have to proceed with caution on any high-risk individual. If we are in any doubt, then we cannot proceed with the business relationship and would have to refer to your Money Laundering Policy, keeping a clear note of all cases so that we can review them once restrictions are lifted in full.

Right to Rent (England only):

The Home Office have issued guidance that the right to rent checks should continue as normal prior to any tenancy commencement.

The Home Office have permitted face time inspection of documents with the individual followed by submission by email, providing a full inspection with the individual takes place within 8 weeks of the restrictions being lifted. All such cases will be recorded for future action.

Where we do see tenants on a face to face basis then we will ensure the health assessment is completed prior to them being permitted into the office.

Any face to face visits into the office will only be undertaken where the 2-metre social distancing can be adhered to, or behind a designated desk with a protective screen.

Property Management:

Interim inspections – we will be using technology such as facetime, zoom or similar to achieve these. We will make clear notes of what we have seen, just as we would with a manual recording of an inspection.

It is important to ensure health and safety of tenants; Annual gas safety checks should continue; we can arrange these at any time from month 10 of the existing certificate without impacting the expiry date. Gas Safe engineers are permitted to visit in accordance with Public Health England guidance.

Contractors may continue to visit properties to undertake maintenance and repair, but we will first complete our health assessment with the contractor. The contractor will visit in accordance with Public Health England guidance.

End of tenancy check out. We will be completing a check out no sooner than 72 hours after the tenant vacated to reduce the risk of spread.

Where any face to face visit must take place in the property, we will ensure a health assessment is completed prior to the visit taking place. We will wear protective gloves and avoid any physical contact and on returning to our vehicle we will safely dispose of our gloves and use hand-gel to give our hands a good wash and wipe any equipment we have used during the visit.

Where a tenant is required to visit our office, we will ensure that full 2-metre social distancing is observed and if possible, use a designated desk behind a protective screen.

Where any keys are issued, we will always wash our hands once this has happened and where keys are received back, wipe the keys, and wash our hands.

We will avoid taking any cash or cheque payments from tenants where possible.

For new tenancies, as a precaution we will operate a ‘3-day void period’ between previous tenants vacating and new tenants taking up residence. This is on results from research that has found the Coronavirus can still be detectable on surfaces for up to 72 hours.

Summary

It is our sole intension to demonstrate a safe way to return to work, servicing our clients with health and safety our primary concern. We welcome any further suggestions and will continue to review this policy to ensure it remains stringent. We thank you for doing business with us, and appreciate you working with us under these new ways of operating during this unusual period.