coronavirus: your frequently asked questions

Yes, all of the latest guidance includes provision to allow qualified tradespeople into homes to carry out repairs. All of our staff are fully trained and have the necessary personal protective equipment  to carry out work in your home while minimising the risks from coronavirus.

We’re also doing all we can to minimise the need to visit homes. Our expert staff may be able to talk you through simple repairs by video call instead of making a physical visit.

If you’ve got specific concerns about coronavirus symptoms or risks, please call us on 0300 1311 999 so that we can talk about what we can do to help.

We are constantly reviewing official government guidance and planning for a range of situations. Wherever reasonably possible, we will aim to maintain the levels of services that you are used to. However, in order to protect the health and wellbeing of our customers and our people, we have had to prioritise essential and emergency repairs. If anything changes, we will update you as soon as possible.

Please be assured, our focus on safety will not be compromised.

For more information please read the latest statement from our Chief Executive, Bill Fullen.

Due to the ongoing Coronavirus situation, we will only be handling essential repairs requests until further notice. We will postpone non-urgent repairs and focus our resources on emergencies only. In this situation, we will be delaying non-urgent repairs until it is safe, and/or we are able to complete them. We will communicate any changes to our customers as soon as possible.

Our operatives will still attend to carry out compliance related gas servicing and electrical inspections work.

It is critical to the safety of your home that gas heating appliances are serviced and checked at least every 12 months. National guidance from the Government, Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Gas Safe Register is that these checks should continue during the coronavirus outbreak.

We fully understand that you may be worried about the coronavirus situation, but we do have a number of options available to ensure your safety. We’re following government guidelines and taking all precautions necessary to ensure we can carry out your appointment safely. Everyone working in our homes has been fully trained and has the necessary personal protective equipment. We will work with you to address any concerns you may have and ensure that you are comfortable with your appointment.

If you are currently suffering from coronavirus symptoms, are isolating, or shielding on medical advice we can postpone your servicing and safety check appointment. Please let us know that you require a rescheduled appointment at the earliest possible opportunity on 0300 1311 999.

We understand that if you’ve made a recent appointment, this may no longer be appropriate as your circumstances at home may have changed. Please make every effort to be at home for your appointment where possible or contact us to rearrange if you are unable to do so. This appointment could be used for another customer and we can always come back to you at a time that is more convenient.

We will only be handling essential repairs requests until further notice, therefore if your defect falls into this category we will action these. We are asking that you please refrain from reporting non-essential works at this time. We will notify you as soon as possible to let you know when services are back to normal.

Our services are being reviewed daily in line with government guidance and the circumstances of our own people. We will keep you updated of any changes as we understand them.

We recognise that meeting face to face personalises the services we offer to our customers. However, taking government guidelines into consideration, we are looking to minimise non-essential face to face contact, to protect your health and well being and that of our people.

In light of this, we are not currently entering any of our customer’s homes, but instead are contacting customers via telephone, email or video calls. In exceptional circumstances where this isn’t possible, we will follow government guidelines and plan any home visits or entry into properties in advance.

Please know that we are still contactable by email, our customer app, through our online form or by calling 0300 1311 999.

Our people will continue to work in our communities and with our customers. This may be at a reduced capacity due to potential absences from work. If you find that you have a particular concern, please contact us by email, our customer app, through our online form or by calling 0300 1311 999.

We are still operating as usual and handling complaints and anti-social behaviour enquiries. Should this situation change we will inform you as soon as possible.

You can let us know about a complaint or anti-social behaviour through our customer app, by calling 0300 1311 999 or by filling in our online form.

Our officers will continue to be available for you, although this may not always be face to face. We are reviewing the situation daily in line with government guidance and we will continue to keep you up to date.

Additional advice has been posted in our communal facilities and we are acting in accordance with government guidelines to minimise the spread of the virus, by stopping all non-essential use of the public areas.

We have increased cleaning regimes in public areas and continue to remind customers of how they can assist in relation to visitors and their own behaviours.

We are also eliminating the need for physical visits to monitor water quality, through a new remote measurement and alarm system in many of our housing plus properties.

We’re pleased that you’re planning to move in to one of our newly built or existing homes. All work on  our construction sites and repairs to our empty properties are continuing although there may be some delays due to the current situation.

We will get in touch to talk about how we can ensure you are able to view and sign for your new home without minimising any risk to your health and wellbeing and that of our people.

If you’ve placed a successful bid on one of our homes, we will contact you to arrange for you to view and sign for your home when it is safe to do so.

We may ask you some questions about your health and the health of those who live with you. This is so we can mitigate and minimise the risk of coronavirus transmission as far as reasonably possible for you and our people.

Video viewings are also available on a select number of properties. Please get in touch with us if you would like to find out more.

We are currently operating a full service. However, we have seen demand and applications for homes rise substantially and we’re doing everything we can to process applications as fast as possible. Uploading all of the required information will assist us in processing your application sooner.

At this time, it’s generally taking longer than normal to prepare homes for new tenants due to the need for social distancing during work and material shortages. We would appreciate your patience.

Yes, you are still able to terminate your tenancy if you want to. We are operating our normal service at the moment.

Please contact us about how we can receive your termination notification as we may need to do it over the phone, email or in another way that minimises face to face contact.

All of our people have been provided with clear guidance on how to maintain their own personal hygiene to protect their own health and wellbeing and that of our customers and will only attend work if they are fit and well. We are following strict government guidelines including the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to minimise the spread of the virus where reasonably possible, so we may also minimise visits.

We are continuing to use digital technology, where possible, to avoid any unnecessary face to face contact.

The easiest way to pay your rent is through our customer app, if you haven’t already downloaded the app, please visit our customer app page for more info.

You can still call us on 0300 1311 999 with your queries. Our telephone service is still operating, should anything change we will let you know.

The following payment methods are also available:

• The Direct Debit mandate form can be found here.
• You can pay online using your tenancy reference number.
• You can also pay on the Allpay website using your payment card reference and bank card.
• You can call our automated payment line on 0300 456 0476 using your tenancy reference number.
• You can use your own internet banking, our payment details are: Account name: believe housing rent. Sort Code: 30-80-12. Account Number: 15547760

If you have any queries please contact us.

Unfortunately, due to our office closures, we are unable to bank any cheques that have been sent to us and will be unable to do so until our office reopens.

If you have any concerns or would like to discuss alternative payment methods or set up a Direct Debit, please call us on 0300 1311 999.

We recognise that the way in which people work and carry out daily activities, social or others is changing overnight, which may have a direct impact on your personal finances.  If you find that you are struggling to pay your rent or any other charges, please contact us as soon as possible.

Our dedicated Money Matters Team are here to help and can support you to make a claim for appropriate benefits. For any outstanding arrears, we will work with you to agree a suitable repayment arrangement.

Yes, this is extremely important. We want to ensure that we are supporting all efforts to reduce the spread of the virus so please inform us where you, and/or anyone in your home are self-isolating or diagnosed with coronavirus. This will help us protect our people, their colleagues and other customers.

We would ask that you call us on 0300 1311 999 at the earliest opportunity to inform us, so we can assess the situation and provide you with the most appropriate advice.

We are briefing colleagues to ask if you or anyone in your home is displaying flu like symptoms, self-isolating or has tested positive for the coronavirus. This is in recognition of the fact that circumstances change quickly, and it may not always be possible for you to contact us prior to the visit.

Please do not be offended if we ask you what may feel like a personal set of questions regarding how you are feeling or any specific diagnosis you may have had, this will help us to assess the situation and enable us to respond appropriately and accordingly to your needs.

Working with our customers and doing the right thing remains our priority and we would ask you to carefully consider if the repair can be delayed until you or the other members of your household have completed the self-isolation period recommended by government guidelines.

If it cannot be postponed, we will assess the repair and decide if a member of our team can safely carry out the work. Measures would include wearing protective equipment; asking the affected person to move to another room in your home; cleaning the affected area before starting work; or a combination of all of these measures.

Ultimately, we must balance carrying out the repair and keeping you, our team and other customers as safe as possible. We will do all we can to help i.e. leaving temporary heaters if your boiler isn’t working. We will advise on each individual case and let you know the best course of action based on the circumstances.

Current government guidance states that if you have an underlying health condition or at risk due to other reasons you should undertake social distancing. In this case, we would ask that you determine if there is an urgent or emergency need for us to come into your home. This will protect you as far as reasonably possible.

Further advice and guidance are available from NHS.uk.

Yes, to avoid our signature touch pad devices, our operatives will ask you if you are happy with everything and then sign the checklist for you. However, tenancy agreements must be signed in person as they are legal documents. These are paper based and where necessary will be presented for you to sign and you can always use your own pen.

We are sorry to hear this and wish you a speedy recovery. Further information on self-isolation can be found at NHS.uk.

Please do let us know about this and provide information on when and where this was, and we can follow it up internally.

We appreciate that this scenario may be concerning and the government guidance does not prevent people from moving around outside of their property. We will consider all requests for a move, however, this may not be a reason which takes precedence over another at this present time.

We would like to offer you some advice and recommend that, if you’re concerned that you keep your distance from your neighbours and remember the advice that hand washing for 20 seconds, using soap and hot water, avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth, will also protect you.

Unfortunately, we are not in a position to help all customers, even though we’d like to. Can you call upon friends and family? Or arrange for an online supermarket delivery who can leave things on your doorstep? With the support of other agencies, we will look to assist our at risk customers where possible.

Our customer service teams will continue to operate as normal.  You can contact us through our customer app, by calling 0300 1311 999 or by filling in our online contact form.