COVID-19 (Coronavirus) - Advice for Highland Council tenants

25th March 2020

As a landlord, the Council's priority is maintaining the welfare of our tenants and providing you with essential services at this difficult time.

The situation is changing daily, but this bulletin contains the most up-to-date information about where you can seek advice if you have any concerns about your wellbeing, income or other tenancy matters.

We do expect further guidance from the government over the coming days and weeks. We will provide you with relevant information as and when we receive it.

1. Staying Safe and Well

(i) Information

Please seek the latest advice on hygiene and self-isolation from the NHS Scotland website

(ii) Vulnerable Tenants

Supporting our tenants is our main priority at this time. We will be trying to contact as many of our vulnerable tenants to see what support we may be able to assist with while you are self-isolating. Where we can we will direct you to other support at this time.

2. Council services

As you will be aware, most of our offices are now closed until further notice and the way we will deliver services is changing. We are accessing how we can deliver non-essential landlord services at this time, while keeping in line with the changing Government guidance.

We will continue to carry out emergency repairs and we will ask questions to make sure it is safe for a trades person to attend. We have issued detailed guidance to our trades and contractors to ensure they follow Government guidance when carrying out repairs.

We are awaiting Government advice on rents and benefit maximisation at this time, but we would encourage all tenants to keep in contact with the Council if you have any concerns and we can direct you to the required advice and assistance.

We thank you for your cooperation and we will be in contact in due course regarding updates to our services.

If you have any queries, please contact our Service Centre on 01349 886602