Coronavirus Update

We are now only carrying out emergency and urgent repairs. Routine repairs have been suspended for the time being.

If you are self-isolating, please let us know before any appointments are arranged.

If a member of our team appears unwell, feel free to ask them about their health to ensure your safety.

For more information on what classes as an emergency repair please visit bpha.org.uk/your-home/repairs-and-maintenance/about-repairs/

We understand that many people will be worried about the affect that Coronavirus might have on their income and ability to pay rent.

If you are affected by the Coronavirus, whether directly through illness or through a change in work circumstances that will impact your income, please contact us as soon as you can. We’re here to help and will look at your individual circumstances and do everything we can support you through this very challenging time.

For more information, advice and guidance on money, rent and income during the Coronavirus crisis, including what benefits you might be entitled to claim, visit our dedicated page on the website.

We’re doing everything we can to continue to provide as normal a service as possible, but given the unprecedented nature of the situation and the increase in demand, there have been some necessary changes.

Opening hours – Our contact centre opening hours will temporarily change to 9am-5pm Monday to Friday. Emails will also be responded to within these times.

Waiting times – Due to an increase in demand, the waiting times are likely to be higher than usual. You may get a quicker response via e-mail.

We would like to thank you in advance for your patience and understanding as we adjust to operating in this new way.

Get in touch

by email: info@bpha.org.uk
by telephone: 0330 100 0272

Our head offices are now closed until further notice and the majority of our employees are working remotely. This is in accordance with government advice, in an effort to slow the spread of Coronavirus and ensure the safety or our visitors and staff.

We are now operating a skeleton Caretaker service only in tower blocks. This will continue to ensure we maintain essential tasks.

No new works will commence. But we will ensure that if we are in the process of fitting a new kitchen or bathroom, then as long as the resident is happy, we will complete the job.

If you are self-isolating, please let us know before any appointments are arranged.

If a member of our team appears unwell, feel free to ask them about their health to ensure your safety.

We will continue to carry out all statutory health and safety compliance checks.

As the Coronavirus (COVID-19) situation evolves, we’re doing everything we can to ensure that our retirement living residents and employees are as safe as possible during this unusual and challenging time.

Communal areas – We will be “closing” all communal areas in our schemes, excluding any laundry facilities.

Guest Rooms – All Guest Rooms will not be available until further notice. Where we have Care Teams on site and they need to use the Guest Room in order to provide a service to residents, we will make specific concessions. We will contact anyone who has made future bookings and explain our reasons for cancelling.

Cleaning – Essential cleaning will continue across all of our Retirement Living schemes.

Visiting support – We will continue with the visiting support service and will be reviewing this regularly to ensure that staff safety is maintained.

Visiting – We strongly recommend that only essential visitors are invited into the scheme. In line with Government advice around “staying at home”, we do not expect any non-essential visitors to come to the scheme.

Social distancing and staying at home – We have all been asked to “stay at home” by the Government, and this means that you need to stay within your flat, except when you are taking the opportunity to exercise outside of your home once a day.

If anything remains unclear or you have any further questions, residents can contact their scheme manager and they will assist you in getting the clarification they need.

We will continue to complete property lettings that have already been allocated for new tenants (new homes and re-lets) and will adapt our process for new sign-ups and lets as the situation evolves.

Although we’re doing everything we can to maintain a normal service, there will be some changes and possible disruption.

• From next week we hope to be able to complete the paperwork involved in moving home digitally, i.e by email
• There could be delays in getting properties ready for letting
• Building sites are closing and contractors maybe operating at a lesser service throughout this period. bpha will contact you to advise if the handover date is delayed.
• On-site visits will also depend on the customer circumstances and the housing officer will carry out appropriate checks to see if this happens.
• Customers may extend their notice period, which could affect properties being available to re-let to waiting customers.

If customers have any questions please contact bpha as normal.

Regarding our new build homes:

• All non-urgent defects, raised through bpha to be carried out by the Housebuilder have been postponed indefinitely.
• Urgent defects, loss of heating, water, electrical and uncontainable leaks will be attended to subject to individual assessment of the defect and possible health questionnaire which will carried out by the Housebuilder.
• Customers are to carry on raising defects as normal through our customer contact centre to ensure continuity. These non-urgent defects will be passed on to the Housebuilder, who will make arrangements to attend when the current restrictions are no longer in place.
• Properties scheduled for an ‘End of Defect Inspection’ in April, May and June 2020, will receive separate communications from our Defects Team.

Whilst we won’t be undertaking any new viewings, we will aim to complete the sales that have reached an exchange of contracts strictly following PHE guidance.