Harcourts Property Management COVID 19 – Communication to PM Clients We are writing to update you on our contingency plans as a business should the State Government direct us to take extreme measures to self-isolate or work from home due to the spread of COVID19 in Victoria or if one of our team members were to catch the virus. Our business is geared for our teams to work from home, we have invested in technology that will enable us to still take calls from our clients during business hours and access all the data and information. We have updated our inspection app to provide prospective clients with advice on what to do post and pre inspections. Things such as, don’t shake hands, if you are sick to not attend and post any inspections wash their hands with warm soapy water. Our intention is to keep our business running, rent collected and our owners paid. Should anything change that will impact our clients we will notify you immediately. Following is a brief outline of processes for our owners and tenants Tenants Rent payments Our expectation is that you will continue to pay your rent as per normal, if your payment is going to be late please let our team know asap. Maintenance If the State Govt requires us to limit our public contact, the only repairs that we will be actioning over any isolation period will be emergency repairs. We will also be guided on which trades are prepared to attend to maintenance call outs. All other general repairs will be actioned post the isolation period Inspections We will continue to do inspections of our properties unless the State Govt asks businesses to reduce public interaction. If you wish to change your inspection date to a time post COVID19 please let us know when you receive notification of your inspection date and time Owners Your rental Payments and Vacant Properties Payments will continue to be made to you as per normal. Vacant properties will still be advertised on REA and if we are required to reduce our interaction with the public as directed by the State Government and discontinue open for inspections, Harcourts Move will record a virtual tour of the vacant property and provide this to all perspective tenants. If they wish to apply, we will process the application to approval stage so that when they are able to view the property post any isolation period, we will be able to expedite their application, draw up leases and have them move into the property.
Maintenance/Property Inspections Only urgent maintenance repairs will be attended to should trades be prepared to attend during any isolation period. Property Inspections will be pushed back to a point in time where all parties feel comfortable. Please note we have already been asked by some tenants to push these inspections back. We will be guided by the recommendations made by Health Authorities and the State Government on actions we need to take. Our priority is to ensure that our people remain well and healthy, our clients are serviced to the best of our ability under extreme circumstances. I am confident that the investments we have made in our various systems will allow us to do so. Again, these measures will only come into place should the Health Authorities or the State Government mandate isolation periods regardless of whether you have the virus or not. For the time being it is business as normal, I just wanted to assure our clients that should things change we have a plan in place! If you have any queries or questions, please feel free to contact me directly on 0403 271 676. I am following this issue closely and will continue to update you should anything change Kind regards Sadhana Smiles Director Harcourts Move