At Neilsons, our number one priority is the safety of our staff and clients. As the need to support social distancing increases, we have taken the decision to temporarily close all of our offices and property shops from 5pm today, Monday 23rd March 2020, as well as implementing even stricter social distancing measures.
Supporting our staff
Our family of staff are the heart of Neilsons. During these unprecedented times, we are extremely grateful for the service they have provided and will continue to provide for clients remotely. We will of course continue to pay staff in full as normal during these times.
Supporting our clients and our communities
Whilst our Offices will be closed, our service will not stop. We have given staff full access to our telephone, banking and internal case management systems from home.
We anticipate our telephone enquiries will increase. You can find the majority of staff direct dials on our website here, so you can get transferred through to the right person quickly. If there is not a direct dial in place simply call the office number listed as usual and one of our reception staff working remotely will be able to re-direct the call. If you do need to leave a message, we will get back to you as soon as conveniently possible.
Guidance for buyers
We are providing a full service with our staff working remotely from home. We envisage that the majority of transactions will progress towards settlement in the normal way although we will probably have to email documentation out to you to have you have it signed and witnessed and returned to us by post. If this is not possible then we will post the documents out to you.
We have to consider however what would happen in the event of a full lockdown. In that event, practical considerations will come into play and it may be necessary to postpone your date of entry because in a lockdown removal vans will not be operating and keys will not be available. This may be unavoidable but it will apply to everyone in the UK in the same situation and consequently, we expect that all parties to property transactions will simply have to agree to put the transaction on hold until circumstances permit settlement of the transaction.
For those of you who are currently house hunting, there is no doubt that these are challenging times for everyone. The most important thing is to stay safe and obviously this means that you cannot now safely view properties so the property market landscape has changed temporarily. What you can achieve at the moment is to effectively do your homework on affordability. Many mortgage brokers are working from home and if you wish to avail yourself of mortgage advice from ourselves, please email sheilabatton@neilsons.co.uk who will be happy to assist you further.
If you wish us to send you a budget planner with fees and outlays and how the costs translate into your purchase project please send an email to mail@neilsons.co.uk.
Guidance for sellers
As part of social distancing measures, viewings are temporarily suspended for the time being. I am sure you can appreciate why with the latest social distancing measures implemented over the past weekend.
We will continue to collate buyers interest and note them on our system so that we can revert back to them when social distancing measures are lifted.
We will of course still continue to promote your property online during this period and our Sales Negotiators will be regularly touching base to provide updates as usual.
If you have Facetime, Skype or Zoom facilities you may wish to consider hosting “virtual viewings”. Please advise us if this is something you would be willing to offer buyers.
For anyone not yet on the market, you can still proceed to market if you wish to be seen by buyers online during this period. We believe that with many people at home, interest in property on the market will hold up, if not increase considerably, even though physical viewing will not be possible at this time. We will still be able to receive notes of interest and may even receive offers “subject to viewing” but all that is in the future.
However, should you wish to put things on hold, please just advise us.
If you have any concerns regarding remaining on the market for the time being, please speak to your Sales Negotiator who will discuss the best way forward based on your own individual circumstances.
For new clients, we will continue to offer telephone consultations or Facetime, Skype or Zoom video appraisals with one of our experienced Valuers. Visit https://www.neilsons.co.uk/selling/book-property-valuation/ to book this in.
Wills, Trusts and Powers of Attorney
Our Private Client Department which deal with Wills, Trusts, Powers of Attorney and administration of estates is operating as normal although all staff will be working from home.
Instructions for Wills and Powers of Attorney can be taken over the phone as required, along with any other enquiries. Please contact the person in charge of your transaction for more information if required. If your enquiry is new, please email tammylogan@neilsons.co.uk for more information.
Guidance for other services
Please do not hesitate to get in touch with the person in charge of your transaction to discuss how things will proceed in the current climate of office closures and social distancing measures.
Thank you
I want to take this opportunity to thank our clients. We appreciate know these are difficult and unsettling times and we look forward to continuing to support you over the coming weeks and times ahead.
I am sure you can understand and appreciate why we have had to temporarily close our offices and implement social distancing measures, but we are doing all we can to ensure that full services are maintained.
A week after the initial wave of staff home working was introduced, the systems have performed very well and we are confident that we will be able to provide our clients with the services they require going forward.
I want to also thank our staff who have continued to provide a great service to our loyal clients in testing times.
Thank you and stay safe,
Steve
Steve Spence
Senior Partner