Coronavirus

We're now taking requests for both internal and external repairs again

The best way to do this is via your MyKarbon account. You can log in or register here. To report an emergency repair, please call us on 0808 164 0111

We can assure you that we have carried out a thorough risk assessment of all the work that we do to ensure it is safe for you and our colleagues. We may wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) depending on the type of work we are doing. 

When you book a repair,  you will be asked whether you or any member of your household is shielding or is confirmed to have or is displaying symptoms of COVID-19, to protect both you and our colleagues. We’ve produced a short video to show you the safety measures you can expect when we are visiting your home. 

We're now offering any new customer wanting to move into a Karbon home, the opportunity to view the property in person beforehand.

Customers will receive an appointment for a viewing. Viewings will last for 15 minutes and only two people will be able to attend. We've created a video explaining how our viewings will take place. Watch it here.

So that we can keep you and our colleagues safe, we will not accompany you on the viewing but we will wait outside to answer any questions you may have, always maintaining a safe 2m distance. We will ask you to sanitise your hands, using your own hand sanitiser, before entering and after leaving the property, and we will wait 72 hours between any viewings of the same property.

Anyone who already viewed the property and signed the tenancy before lockdown will soon be able to move into their homes and we will contact them in due course to make arrangements.

We will also begin to offer existing customers the opportunity to transfer from their current homes to a new Karbon property from the beginning of July.

For those looking to rent through the choice-based lettings system, we have continued to advertise, shortlist and make offers to customers applying through Durham Key Options, Northumberland Homefinder and Compass throughout lockdown, despite not being able to offer viewings. Tyne and Wear Homes Service has been suspended during this time but will be up and running by the end of this week and we will be able to advertise vacant properties in the area again.

Our Rent to Buy, Shared Ownership homes and homes for Outright Sale can be reserved via our Sales and Marketing and the viewings process will be the same as above.  Please contact our Sales and Marketing Team on 0191 223 8749 or salesandmarketing@karbonhomes.co.uk

We're running a reduced grounds maintenance service at the moment. If you would like to highlight an issue in your area which you think we need to know about, please use our contact us page to do so. 

To ensure the safety and wellbeing of our customers and colleagues, our offices are closed to customers. Please view our latest update regarding this here.

We will work with our partners to deliver any planned maintenance works to the outside of your home. These include external painting, fencing, structural improvements and re-roofing works.

All this activity has been carefully risk assessed for safety and new social distancing procedures introduced.

If any works are planned to your home, please ensure you carefully follow any guidance we provide on maintaining social distancing to protect both you and our team. If you have any concerns about the planned works or you are unwell, please let the site manager or one of our team know.

If you’d like to check your current balance or make a payment to us, you can do this via the MyKarbon portal. You can also call us to make a payment on our freephone number 0808 164 0111.

We have been working with both our suppliers, NFS and EDP during the lockdown period to run an emergency service across our Furniture Pack Rental Schemes. As we start to see an easing of lockdown measures, we are working with suppliers to look at which services we can now deliver safely and effectively.

• New furniture packs - if you need help when you move in, we are looking to start providing these furniture packs again over the next few weeks. We ask customers to follow safe social distancing guidelines when doing so. Essential items such as appliances will still be the highest priority.
• Repairs to non-working items – we will continue to work to repair or replace as many of these items as we can. Again, essential appliances, for cooking, washing and food storage will be the priority items.
• Collection/return of items no longer needed – when you know you no longer need an item, let us know. We’ll have a look and see if this affects your furniture rental charge, but please be aware this we may not be able to confirm when these items will be collected at this stage.

If you’ve got any questions or need any help with any of the items you have from the Furniture Service, please contact your Karbon Housing Officer.

We will begin to resume our estate inspections in the next couple of weeks, identifying any problems with fly tipping or gardens that need to be cleared as a priority.

We will also resume contacting customers by phone as part of our regular programme of customer ‘visits’, offering our support and advice.

We continue to listen to your feedback to ensure this is reflected in our plans and we are looking for ways to get you more involved in shaping these over the coming weeks. If you would like to get involved, please email lewis.rimington@karbonhomes.co.uk.

We want to reassure you that no one will be evicted because of coronavirus. If you are worried about paying your rent because of Coronavirus, please call us so that we can talk to you about how we can help you with this. We can also put you in touch with our Money Matters Team who can provide you with a range of advice and support.

We have produced several Questions and Answers to help deal with customer queries which we will amend regularly based on advice from Government. You can access these here.

We’ve recruited more volunteers to our Silver Talk service, providing a regular, friendly phone call to you so you don’t feel alone when at home.

If you feel that you are at risk of abuse, it is important to remember that there is help and support available to you, including police response, online support, helplines, refuges and other services. You are not alone. We can help. 

You can register if you or someone you support has a medical condition that makes you/them extremely vulnerable to coronavirus. For example, you’ll be able to ask for help getting deliveries of essential supplies like food. If you’re not sure whether your medical condition makes you extremely vulnerable, register anyway.

You can register yourself, or on behalf of someone else at www.gov.uk/coronavirus-extremely-vulnerable. If you’ve already received your shielding letter from the government don’t forget to register too.

We want to help our communities during the Coronavirus crisis, and we recognise that many of our customers are struggling.

We've created a fund for initiatives supporting those who are socially isolated or elderly without support networks, those unable to afford essentials and those unable to access the internet. Apply for funding online today

We’ve been contacting our most vulnerable customers by phone to check on their situation and find out what type of support they need. We’ve also already contacted more than 1,000 residents in our extra care and retirement living schemes and have begun to call a further 2,800 residents, aged over 70, living in individual homes.

Following on from this will be contacting around 3,000 residents under 70 with specific vulnerabilities.

Our dedicated safer neighbourhood officers are continuing to work with our housing officers as well as local partners including the police and local authorities to tackle anti-social behaviour in our communities at this time.

We ask customers to please follow these guidelines to avoid any behaviour that may be considered antisocial:

• Do not invite external visitors into your home unless they are carrying out essential activities – for example, providing care, undertaking emergency repairs etc. Allowing multiple visitors into your home without good reason will be considered to be antisocial behaviour and will be tackled.
• Do not dump rubbish in your garden or near your home. Please use the bins provided by your local council. Do not burn the rubbish as it will create unpleasant fumes for surrounding neighbours.

If you want to report anti-social behaviour, please contact us on 0808 164 0111 and we will do our best to tackle the problem.