Up-dated information about how we are responding to Covid-19:
1. Community Support Volunteers
The JMB is helping to organise mutual support amongst residents. This means that if a resident needs help collecting shopping, paying for food or feeling isolated and need a chat we can help, just ask. If you want to provide help please phone 020-7450 8000 during office hours or email charlotte.parsons@leathermarketjmb.org.uk
2. Rent and service charges
Thank you for maintaining rent and service charge payments, especially those residents facing financial difficulties. Our Resident Services Officers can offer advice on government support schemes and route you towards expert advice if the issue is complex. Thanks to support from Southwark Council and local charities, we have access, albeit limited, to hardship funds and food supplies.
3. JMB services
With the hospitals overstretched we are trying to balance keeping people safe with providing as close to a normal service as possible.
We have closed the office again as a safety measure and will re-open when infection rates fall.
On any one day most of your office staff will be working from home. Our ability to respond to emails should be unaffected. A couple of residents have told me that it has been difficult to get through on the phone. If the line is busy please give it five minutes and try again.
4. Repairs within your home
We want to reduce the chances of us spreading the virus by not coming into your home, unless it is necessary. This means we are delaying repairs inside your flat that do not affect the quality of your life.
As long as no one in the household is self-isolating and you are prepared to let us in, the repairs we are doing for secure tenants are:
• Any repair that impacts on your health and safety
• Roof leaks and water penetration from outside
• Burst pipes affecting you or your neighbours
• Blocked toilets, sinks, wash band basins
• Water supply problems
• No lighting
• Securing your front door and accessible windows
• No heating & hot water. If an individual radiator is not working we will ask you to wait up to five working days.
With regard to these repairs, the JMB and our contractors are working to stick to the response times set out in the Tenancy Agreement. However both the JMB’s own and our contractors’ workforces have been affected by Covid-19. We are also dependant on being able to continue to get spare parts.
If you have any of the following repairs please still let us know, but we will put them on hold for 60 days:
• Internal doors and kitchen units
• Making good plastering and decorations after a leak. We can give you a money payment if you want to get on with the work yourself, rather than wait for us
• Old bathroom furniture. We have let a contract to renew old bathrooms for secure tenants and will be working our way across the JMB in the forthcoming years
• Single electrical sockets not working.
5. Send us a photograph of the repair
We want to reduce the number of people who need to visit your home to get a repair done, so please email us a photograph of the repair you are reporting, as this might mean we can avoid doing an initial inspection.
6. Damp/ condensation
With the cold and wet weather at the moment we are getting increased reports of damp and condensation. Many of us need to wipe surplus water off the inside of our windows and signs of condensation, as part of the normal maintenance of our homes. If you feel that the condensation is too much to for you to wipe off please sent us a photograph. Depending on the severity of the condensation we will assess.
7. Not sure what is happening with a repair?
We are working in difficult circumstances and are concerned that no repair requests slip through the net. If you have reported a repair to us and we have not given you a clear explanation about what is happening please give us a ring on 020-7450 8000 during office hours, or email us on residentservices@leathermarketjmb.org.uk
8. SC Duncan
We have a new general repairs contractor starting this week named SC Duncan. They will be working alongside the JMB’s own repairs’ team.
9. Gas safety checks
It is the law that every secure tenant should have their gas appliances checked at least every twelve months. The Government has told us to keep going with these checks because they believe the risk from carbon monoxide poisoning is greater than from Covid-19.
10. Entry phone repairs
During the current restrictions our contractor will continue to repair the main control panel on the main door, but they will not do into residents’ homes to repair handsets. Again please continue to tell us about handset repairs, but we will hold these until the situation is safer.
11. Outside repairs
We are continuing to do these. Because of home working we have less staff out and about on your estates, so it would be helpful if you could let us know about any outside repairs you notice. We know that we have a back-log of high level estates lighting repairs. We have been waiting for our new contractor, SC Duncan, to start so that we can batch these works together.
12. Cleaning and gardening
We are continuing to provide these services as normal.
13. Estates Parking
During the brief lifting of restrictions during July to November we only managed to re-introduce parking controls on Kipling estate, so restrictions do not apply on our other estates.
14. Major works
We are continuing to start major works, because we are worried that our major works backlog will become too severe if we delay. The Government guidelines allow construction works to continue as long as strict safety procedures are followed.
15. Virtual Support Group
JMB Director Debbie Walsh, is hosting a support group for those needing to talk every Wednesday from 3pm to 4pm on Zoom.
Zoom Link ID: 4705 273 165
Passcode: 7hkhrH
Please do let us know if you would prefer a one to one call with a volunteer.
16. Comments and suggestions
If you have any service requests or suggestions about how we are organising our services in response to the pandemic please contact your Resident Services Officer or phone us on 020-7450 8000 (during office hours) or email residentservices@leathermarketjmb.org.uk
Yours faithfully
Andy Bates
JMB Manager
