On 8 March 2021 we celebrate International Women’s Day with the theme – “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a Covid-19 world”. The theme celebrates the efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. At Watsons we strive for a future where everyone feels included, and diversity is encouraged. We empower our people to be themselves and respect others – it’s core to our values and what we’ve always believed in. To celebrate today we have been speaking to some of our amazing women, in the Blocks and Estates team for their viewpoints.
Emily Farmer, Head of Blocks & Estates Management
As the weeks of lockdown continue, we at Watsons continue to provide business as usual in the best way we know how. The Government has made it clear from the outset that properties must continue to be maintained to a safe standard, especially with regards to health and safety and emergency equipment.
We asked our Head of Block and Estate Management, Emily Farmer to tell us how these challenging times have affected our Property Managers.
“Our focus is to continue to do all we can to keep communication lines open. Over the last few weeks we have resolved various issues following on from the heavy snow and storm damage and we continue to prioritise urgent maintenance requests and ensure all of our residents and staff are protected during this period”.
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Abbie Lamb, Property Manager
In this week’s viewpoint we speak to Regional Property Manager Abbie Lamb to find out the key challenges and concerns for tenants in managed properties.
“Of course top of everyone’s list at the moment is trying to understand whether their building could potentially have unsafe cladding that will require remedial work. As property managers, we have a duty of care to, which extends to mitigating the risks associated with fire in all of our properties. Keeping our residents safe from harm is paramount and we are complying with all legislation and regulations in relation to fire safety. But it is a challenging time at the moment as the number of contractors qualified to conduct these surveys is greatly outstripped by demand. The current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating this problem.”
“But rest assured we have been really busy meeting contractors on site to complete full surveys on potentially impacted buildings. We have contacted all of our customers in potentially affected building but if you have any concerns at all around the safety of your building please get in touch with us to explain your concerns.”
Alicia Lacey, Property Manager
In this viewpoint we speak to Regional Property Manager Alicia Lacey to find out what she thinks have been the key issues for managing leasehold properties during Covid-19.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has had a massive impact of businesses and people all over the country, for us it has meant we have had to adapt and create new ways of working to limit entry into homes wherever possible. While we always appreciate our clients sending through photos and videos of any problems, this has become crucial in these times and we want to thank you all for your assistance in providing these when asked. It has helped us make made an informed decision on the potential works required, without having to conduct a site visit in some cases.”
“One good thing about lockdown is people are always around and actually problems we may not have been made aware of are being highlighted to us sooner because people are at home more and are paying more attention to their properties. This means we have been able to book in the appropriate contractor and get problems resolved much faster and crucially before a minor repair becomes major works.”
“One of the key challenges is that work is difficult to plan because there is such a high demand alongside ongoing limitations on working in homes. This is further compounded by impacts on sourcing of materials given many businesses reduced production during the lockdowns. But people are really pulling together and the large majority of people I speak to are all really understanding and patient.”
Shelley Philbrock, Property Manager
In this viewpoint we speak to Shelley Philbrock about her role as a Regional Property Manager and what it entails.
“In a leasehold property, the responsibility for maintenance of the structure, the upkeep of common parts, placing of insurance and provision of services usually rests with your landlord. A property managing agent is appointed by the landlord (or Resident Management Company or Right to Manage company) to run and manage the building and any services on their behalf. Service charges are then levied to recover the costs involved in providing these services. Dependent on your development setup you may have more than one service charge to contribute too – for example separate building and estate charges.”
“My role as a Regional Property Manager encompasses everything from law, building construction, health and safety, disputes between neighbours, accounting and much more. It’s the variety that makes it interesting as I never do the same day twice.”
