Problem solvers  

Last month, thousands of homes were without water over the weekend of 3^rd March. It was due to extreme weather causing pipes to burst up and down the country. The South East was no exception, but for some people in the Croydon area they had the good fortune to have their flats managed by CapitalSpace customer Gateway Letting, whose personal service means they would never leave tenants stranded. 

Founder Brigitte Van Bers explained how they dealt with the situation: ‘We get to know all our tenants personally – even though we manage nearly 100 properties.  You get to know who’s friendly and helpful and who likes to keep themselves to themselves.  That personal knowledge meant that when we discovered that some of our tenants didn’t have water, we called their friendliest neighbours and asked them to pop over with a bucket of water so they could flush the toilet and make a cup of tea. 

‘We also unlocked one of the empty flats which did have water so the tenants could take it from there. This was all well and good, but those without heating still had to find another solution. For them we gathered heaters (which we store for emergencies like this) and handed them out to those in need.’

Communication is key  

‘We had five flats without water and three without heating as well. All our tenants have a fridge magnet with the numbers they need to call in different scenarios, including our emergency number for maintenance issues.  Many of the tenants were very patient and waited till the morning but our centre is available at all times. 

‘As the calls started coming in, we sent over our maintenance manager, but he couldn’t find any burst pipes.  We then noticed  that all the flats without water were on the top floors, so we wondered if it was an issue with water pressure.  I went onto Thames Water’s website and found out that they had a burst main in the areas so had reduced the water pressure while they fixed it.  I contacted all the tenants to let them know what was going on and kept them informed until their water was back.’ 

Not all businesses would go as far as Gateway Letting did when times were hard for their tenants; they were willing to go the extra mile in order to make sure they weren’t without heating and water over a very stressful experience.  We love supporting customers in our business accommodation centres who give the same level of personal customer service that we believe in.   

To find out how Capital Space business premises could benefit your growing business,  call 0800 107 3667