Latest news

Manage your tenancy online

Atrium Homes tenants will soon be able to access our services quicker and easier than ever before.

We will shortly be launching our Tenant Portal, giving our customers 24/7 access to a variety of housing services at the push of a button on their computer keyboard or a tap of the app on their phone. The new portal will make it easier for customers to check their rent account balance, report repairs, keep their details up-to-date or make a complaint.

We want to make it as convenient and easy as possible for our customers to use so for our final testing before we go LIVE, we’re looking for 25 volunteers to help us. To sign up to help simply send your name and address and contact number to portal@atrium-homes.co.uk

and we’ll give you instructions on how to register . You must be a tenant to apply and once you’ve simply given us some feedback on finding your way around the portal we’ll send you £25 for your help.

Sign up by 20^th October 2020 to have a chance of being selected.

Atrium Lockdown Exit Plans

Atrium has been establishing its plans for exiting lockdown and getting staff back from furlough or home working and into its office and tenants' homes. We are being guided by this by Scottish Government advice which permits non-essential offices to reopen from 31 July, but also permits other outdoor based or low risk construction type works to take place now.

Based on this, our timeline is this:

• From Monday 13 July: Atrium Property Services has begun work on external repairs which have built up over lockdown plus re-commissioning and preparing void properties which were ready for let back in March. This will take them several weeks.
• Also from w/c 13 July external estate inspections have recommenced to catch up on contractor activity, which has been ongoing over the last 3 months. We’ll be giving a priority to the garden maintenance scheme which started again in early June. In parallel, allocations staff have started to do viewings on voids with a view to allocating properties again.
• From Monday 20 July, we will begin to allocate the small number of empty properties that are ready. Some tenants may already have been contacted regarding this. We are liaising with our contractors on the upgrade and repair of other properties which became empty during lockdown to get these properties ready for occupation as soon as possible.
• From Monday 3 August, our phones will be reset to operate on our standard hours i.e 9.00am to 5.00pm Monday to Thursday; 9.00am to 4.00 pm Friday, as we take another step back towards resuming full service.
• Also from Monday 3 August, we anticipate APS and other contractors will begin work on the substantial backlog of internal repairs which has built up since we went into lockdown. We will be checking with customers in the coming weeks that they’re happy for work to be done, and scheduling appointments. We will be introducing safety measures to make it as safe as we can for customers and contractor alike, to carry out repairs.
• From Monday 10 August, we hope that some staff will be able to work from the office in Shortlees, and we will be considering this in more detail closer to the time.

A Note on Repairs

Since March this year we have only been able to undertake emergency and urgent repairs to occupied properties, but our tenants have still been reporting other repairs to us. This has resulted in a substantial backlog which we will be aiming to address as quickly as we can. Many of these repairs are inside occupied properties and additional safety measures may be needed to minimise the risk of Covid spread. This may impact on the speed at which our operatives and contractors can work, which in turn may affected the length of time needed to address the backlog. We will be aiming to do these repairs in order and it will take some time to work through them.

In addition, we expect we will receive additional repair requests to those already recorded. These will be triaged as normal, allocated a priority and addressed in turn. It may be several months before we are able to achieve anything like the average response time of 4.5 working days for routine repairs that tenants previously enjoyed, so we ask for your patience.

Public Holiday Closure

Public Holiday Closure

Please note that we will be closed

Friday 3^rd July &

Monday 6^th July 2020

If you require an emergency repair on these days, please contact the following contractors –

General Repairs: 01563 528816

Gas Maintenance: Gas Sure 01294 468113

Please only use this service in a genuine emergency

Some Good News...

A number of our contractors have begun to prepare themselves to resume some of the activities being carried out for Atrium before lockdown.

McTaggart Construction returned to site at Sunnyside Sq. West, Shortlees and resumed full site activity on 15^th June. The site was close to completion before lockdown started and we expect to hear in the next few weeks when the phased handovers will commence and the properties can be let.

AC Whyte, the contractor undertaking the External Wall Insulation works in New Farm Loch, is proposing a return to site week commencing 22 June. Atrium has contacted those tenants involved in the project of this date and AC Whyte will contact tenants directly prior to any works commencing at their home.

Dumbreck Decorators, the contractor recently awarded the contract for external painterwork and guttering cleaning has also indicated a site start for these works around 22 June and staff and contractor will be advising tenants if involved in any of these works in advance of them taking place.

CCG, the contractor undertaking HFF21CLS works, has recently provided a ‘Return to Work’ plan with a view to managing activities in occupied properties when they are formally given the go-ahead to do so. Staff will advise tenants involved in the next phase of works well in advance of this. Staff are currently working with CCG to restart the HFF21CLS works to around 20 void properties needing major works so you might see some of their vans in the area quite soon.

We anticipate Atrium Property Services will be able to pick up on external repairs works that have been notified to us, and also undertake some works to void properties around early July. Office staff are now concluding preparation of operating procedures and risk assessments to allow a phased start into all of our current areas of activity for once lockdown is eased further. We’ll also let you know when it is possible for repairs to be can be carried out in your home with your consent.

All contractors will be completing risk assessments before undertaking works and will be required to follow procedures based on current social distancing and health and safety guidelines.