COVID Secure

Proud Member of The Guild of Property Professionals

As we start to see some easing of restrictions across the UK, it is important that we all work together to maintain the hard work which everyone has contributed towards in minimising Covid risk and for the safe keeping of our customers and our colleagues.

There may be regional variations or local and national lockdown restrictions which affect the home moving process – these will always supersede any information provided by us.

The following sections outline our recommendations to continue to operate in covid secure way.

1. People at work

Guidance remains that people should continue to work from home where they can but where this is not possible for personal or business reasons, then it is permitted to work from the office, but:

• No one should attend work the office or any face to face appointment  if they are showing any of the covid symptoms.

• No one should attend work or any face to face appointments’ if they have been advised too self-isolate.

2. Our offices

We will adhere to Government guidance on social distancing measures and face coverings.

Face coverings will always be worn by the team (unless exempt) whenever any member of the public is present.

Many of our offices are operating an appointment-only system. We may also keep the front door locked to control the number of visitors within each branch, this will provide extra assurance to both our team and anyone visiting.

Offices should have a supply of hand sanitiser available on each desk for staff, visitors, and customers to use.

We will continue to ensure our offices and all equipment and surfaces are cleaned on a regular basis to help prevent risks of spread of the virus.

We will continue to ask visitors to either scan the NHS test and trace bar code or provide us with their contact details so that contact can be made in the case of a positive covid test case.

3. Valuations and Viewings

Estate Agency is a ‘people’ business and requires interaction with sellers, buyers, applicants, landlords, tenants, and contractors to name but a few.

We will continue to promote our digital option as our ‘first option’. We have made a significant investment in the technology available which enables us to reduce the level customer and therefore reducing the risk of spreading the virus, yet still being able to actively promote and market the properties we have for sale.

Any face-to-face meeting will always be by appointment only and prior to any meeting taking place, we will issue email confirmation outlining what will happen on the appointment

We will ask a few questions regarding COVID symptoms or whether someone in the household is self-isolating.

All parties will be asked to wear a face covering throughout the appointment. We will respectfully avoid any handshaking or physical contact and adhere to social distancing where possible. We may also kindly ask that the occupier opens all doors for us, to avoid unnecessary contact. We will avoid any touching of surfaces during the visit.

There will be no open house viewings for the time being.

There are no national restrictions on applicants viewing a property but for the time being we would request that the number of people viewing are restricted to ‘essential’ only. We know buying a property is an exciting part of your life and that naturally you want to share that experience with loved ones, but by keeping the level of customer contact to a minimum you are helping restrict the possibility of spreading the virus.

5. Health and Safety for Tenants

All Health and Safety matters such as annual gas safety checks and mandatory electrical testing will continue as will visits to resolve any reported maintance issues. No contractor will attend an appointment if they are showing symptoms or self-isolating and all will follow covid secure procedures.

In summary

It is our sole intention to continue to work safely in the interests of all customers who use our services and for our teams, but with health and safety as our primary concern. We 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 as we have all come to terms with operating differently over the last 12 months and as we start to come out of restrictions.

Lorna, Karen and all of the team at next2buy