Only four days have passed since my last message to our customers, as is the pace of change in our Governments approach to tackling COVID-19.
From the outset, our priority, as a responsible business, and employer, has been the health and safety our staff, our customers and the contractors we instruct on your behalf. In this respect, based on the recent guidance issued, we have taken the decision to instruct all of our staff to stay at home, and not attend either our Glasgow or Edinburgh offices.
To ensure our customers experience as little disruption as possible, when contacting us, our contingency plan has been implemented with Directors and management staff being equipped to work from home. In addition to the matters confirmed in my previous communication, alteration to our communication strategies are:
- Our main telephone switchboards will be handled differently during this temporary period. A telephone message service is available for the small number of customers without access to email.
- In the first instance, your Property Manager can be contacted by email (details available through your My H&P App), or by telephoning their Direct Dial number (detailed on their email signature).
- Our email addresses info@hackingandpaterson.co.uk and edinburgh@hackingandpaterson.co.uk continue as normal and emails received will be forwarded to the appropriate department for action and response.
- In the event of an emergency affecting your property you should contact any of the contractors identified at https://www.hackingandpaterson.co.uk/customer-support/emergency-contacts/
- Our factoring teams will focus their attention on essential and emergency customer communication. It is possible that over this temporary period some general queries may be responded to out with our standard published timeframes in our Written Statement of Service, but we hope for minimal disruption.
- All customer communications from us will be sent electronically over this temporary period. I would like to thank all our customers who responded positively to my last request for email addresses.
I would also like to thank all our customers for your understanding and co-operation where services have been adjusted. We will continue to inform you if there are further temporary alterations to our processes.
In the meantime, my dedicated team will continue to assist you, and continue to arrange for the communal maintenance and servicing of your property, for as long as contractors and service providers are able to. Building insurance will continue as normal.
Financial Hardship
As a follow on to my previous message I want now to concentrate on our customers who are facing financial hardship due to this terrible situation.
It is encouraging that many of our customers have taken note of my previous offer and have communicated with us to agree a suitable payment holiday or arrangement, we are already assisting these customers with their needs.
If you find yourself in the unfortunate position of experiencing hardship, I again urge you to contact us to establish how we can help you through this.
Specifically, we are able to offer you;
1] deferred payments for 3 months or
2] an extended installment arrangement affordable to you
There is no penalty or interest charges with either of these options.
Naturally, we would be happy to consider any other alternatives which you feel would suit you.
We would revisit the arrangement you enter into with us at a future date, depending on your circumstances.
Many of our customers have already contacted our credit control team and I remind you of the email address you should use –
creditcontrol@hackingandpaterson.co.uk
Please come forward and contact us and we will do all that we can to help you.
Please stay safe.
DAVID AC DORAN
Managing Director
