CO2 and Covid

A good place to start would be to think about ventilation. It has been proven beyond doubt that improving ventilation reduces the transmission of Covid dramatically. In Belgium, public buildings must by law have CO2 detectors to monitor air quality and the UK government has just announced that it will be supplying 300,000 CO2 detectors for use in schools. However, the importance of ventilation has had very little coverage in the press so far.

As a business owner, you really must think about the air quality in your offices – you can improve it.

Adam Walker

I recently read an excellent article about ventilation in The New Scientist. It said that very few people catch Covid outdoors where on average the CO2 concentration is 410 parts per million. Indoors, the concentration is higher and the higher it is, the greater the risk of catching Covid.

Some of their test results were quite surprising. For example, the CO2 levels on a bus or train with the windows open were hardly raised at all but in a private car with one passenger and the windows closed, the CO2 levels increased by more than 400 per cent. In view of this, it seems ironic that the trains only have one third the number of passengers that they had before Covid whilst road traffic has already returned to pre-pandemic levels.

As a business owner, you really must think about the air quality in your offices because there are some very simple and cheap things that you can do to improve it. The first thing to do is to install a CO2 detector. We are used to buying carbon monoxide detectors but we now know that carbon dioxide is dangerous too. The detectors are very cheap and will give you a continuous reading of the CO2 levels in the office so that immediate action can be taken if they increase.

Open the windows

The second thing to ensure is that some windows are open. A couple of small high-level open windows will make an enormous difference to the air quality. If they don’t open or have been painted shut, then they need to be repaired or adapted immediately.

If opening the windows is impossible or impractical, then the alternative is to upgrade your air conditioning system. Most air conditioning systems do not draw in fresh air from outside, they just heat or cool the stale air, then recycle it continuously. When I am driving my car, I find that if I leave the air conditioning on the recycle setting, I feel myself getting drowsy within about 30 minutes. Exactly the same thing happens in an office.

Upgrading the air conditioning system will be expensive but it will prove to be an excellent investment. If you have to shut the office for ten days due to a Covid outbreak amongst your staff, the lost revenue will outweigh the cost of a new air conditioning unit several times over. Furthermore, better air quality will improve your staff’s productivity. A recent survey found that productivity increases by around nine per cent in a well-ventilated office.

“We should keep accompanied viewings to a minimum.”

Minimise contact

A second area to focus on is minimising contact with other people. There is a great deal that can be done to achieve this. For example, whilst we are allowed to do accompanied viewings again, we should still be keeping them to a minimum. Insisting that applicants to a virtual viewing before they do a real one is a very good way to achieve this. You should also try to meet the applicants at the property rather than travelling together in a car and try to get to the property five minutes early so that you can open some windows to ventilate the property before they arrive.

Another sensible precaution is to keep visitors to the office to a minimum. For example, everyone should be encouraged to sign documents electronically rather than in person. Maintenance issues should be reported by email, not in person. Finally, contractors could be asked to collect keys from an external lock box rather than coming into the office in person. You need to think about everyone who visits your office and consider whether they actually need to. Some simple changes here can reduce the number of visitors dramatically.

If you or your staff cannot avoid being in a crowded and unventilated room, then they should take every possible precaution to avoid becoming infected. Wear an FFP3-grade mask – it gives the wearer a much higher degree of protection than the surgical masks that most people use.

Learning from the pandemic

There are many other things that you can probably stop doing. The evidence shows that hand sanitiser has very little impact on infection levels yet almost every single business still has a pot next to the entrance door. Perspex screens have also been shown to be pretty useless because the infectious particles can easily travel around them. In fact, by trapping stale air in one area, they may even increase infection levels. Finally, sanitising people’s desks and the office door handles ten times a day is expensive and has been shown to have very little benefit.

It is clear now that we are going to have to learn to live with Covid for a long time to come but some simple cheap and common-sense precautions can have a real effect upon what impact Covid has on you, your staff and your business.

Adam Walker is a management consultant and business transfer agent who has specialised in the property sector for more than forty years.

www.adamjwalker.co.uk

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Estate agents have reason to celebrate today after Covid restrictions are dropped, many of which have made life and work challenging for everyone.

From today onwards people who are pinged by the NHS Covid-19 contact app will no longer have to isolate if they have had their final vaccine dose 14 days prior to the ‘ping’.

The changes cover England and Northern Ireland but agents in Northern Ireland will be required to take a PCR test at day two and day eight after being pinged.

But despite the more relaxed rules, The Guild of Property Professionals is advising agents that, if they are pinged by the NHS app after coming into contact with a person who’s tested positive, they should take a PCR test before going to the office or seeing any clients.

“Even after receiving both jabs, it is possible to contract the virus and spread it, so agents should remain cautious and adhere to protocols that will protect their clients and colleagues, such as limiting contact and wearing a face covering in enclosed spaces,” says the Guild’s Compliance Officer Paul Offley.

But Offley (pictured) says the new more relaxed rules will prevent estate agencies being disrupted further including, in some documented cases, the entire staff compliment of a branch having to self-isolate.

“Provided agents have been double-vaccinated, they will be able to keep their businesses open and clients’ property transactions on track and moving,” says Offley.

“If reducing the impact of the virus was not already enough of an incentive, not having to self-isolate should prompt more people to book their vaccines, it they haven’t done so already.”

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Estate agencies should be well equipped to deal with the ‘pingdemic’ sweeping the UK as many of the ten-million plus people using the NHS Covid app are told to isolate as infections rise, it has been claimed.

Propertymark says the industry is well suited to the new challenges of staff being ‘pinged’ by the app and told to isolate, as estate agency has had since June last year to get home working systems up and running. This is in comparison with many other industries including retail and logistics which are struggling.

But the British Chambers of Commerce has taken a tough line, saying that companies were ‘struggling to make sense’ of the Covid rules which seemed to changing ‘hour by hour’.

Propertymark’s comments follow Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak decision to self-isolate after being told to isolate following meetings with health secretary Sajid Javid, who tested positive last week.

The Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer initially claimed they were taking part in a pilot programme that enable them to dodge self-isolation, but later did a U-turn.

“Since the start of the pandemic agents were some of the few businesses to remain open and have had to find new ways of working by adapting their processes as we moved through the various levels, stages, and local restrictions,” Mark Hayward (pictured), its Chief Policy Advisor tells The Neg.

“Also, many agents have found efficiencies in what they do. Consumer demand currently remains strong, but we are entering into a traditionally quieter time in the market.

“We expect agents to continue to adapt and review their processes as well as put in place staff management tools that are now well practised such as working from home, staff rotation and even considering the benefit of home testing to allow agents to continue to support buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants.”

The Labour party has put it more bluntly, saying: “The ‘pingdemic’ phrase obscures the truth: that the pandemic is not over and we may as well just carry on using that word”.

Read more: Will Covid soon be a distant memory or has it changed estate agency for ever?

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A call by MPs for a comprehensive Covid exit plan for the private rented sector has been welcomed by landlords.

The move follows a report published today by MPs on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee on the impact of the Covid 19 pandemic on the sector.

Loss of earnings and the ban on evictions have caused rent arrears to soar over the past 12 months.

According to a recent report by National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA), 7% of tenants had built up arrears due to Covid. Applied across the sector that would amount to 840,000 tenants.

‘Proper exit plan’

The report found that:

• 18% of those in arrears had rent debts of more than £1,000.
• 11% of private renters are now unemployed.
• Younger people are most likely to have been affected with 14% of renters aged 18 to 24 and 10% of those aged 25 to 34 having built arrears since March.

Landlords were badly hit, with 60% losing rental income as a result of the pandemic and 14% of respondents saying they had lost more than 20% of their rental income.

A third of landlords (34%) said they were considering either leaving the market entirely or selling some of the properties they rent out.

NRLA chief executive Ben Beadle said: “We welcome today’s report [by MPs], which calls for a proper exit plan for the private-rented sector from current restrictions.

“At the heart of that plan needs to be action to tackle rent debts built as a result of the pandemic. The committee is right to express disappointment at the lack of a clear strategy from the government to deal with this pressing issue.

“We wholeheartedly support the committee’s call for action to support tenants to repay rent arrears to be a top priority, including consideration of making payments direct to landlords. As the report notes, this would be the best way to sustain tenancies and help landlords receive income.”

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Hiscox has begun emailing its agent database to confirm that few if any agents are to get a pay-out.

The email quotes the recent Supreme Court decision which it claims enables insurers to refuse pay-outs to estate agents, depending on the wording within their policies, and the type of cover offered.

Referring to the various regulations brought in by the government during the pandemic, Hiscox says: “The Supreme Court found that Hiscox’s policies can provide cover for businesses that were subject to mandatory closure restrictions if those businesses suffered an interruption to their business due to an inability to use their premises as a result of the restrictions.

“For those businesses not subject to mandatory closure, the Court found that it is likely that it will be difficult to demonstrate an inability to use their premises.”

But one agent has been in contact with The Negotiator to take issue with Hiscox’s interpretation of the ruling, pointing out that the official guidance issued on March 27 at the beginning of the first lockdown was clear.

It said: “In line with advice for certain businesses to close, agents should not open branches to the public during this period, or visit people’s homes to carry out market appraisals.”

Branch closed

Ben Williams, of Wootton Estate Agents, says the guidance left him with no option but to close his branch on the Isle of Wight following this advice.

He has contacted Propertymark to ask what the trade association is going to do in order to fight for the ‘hundreds of agents’ who are now out of pocket. Its policy chief Mark Hayward has replied in person to point Ben to its own guidance issued in March last year, which quoted ministry of housing officials who urged agents to shut their branches. But Propertymark is not ready to take a public position on whether this advice is the ‘mandated’ closure Hiscox refers to.

Williams bought his Hiscox insurance through Propertymark-approved broker Gallagher. The Negotiator has contacted Propertymark and Hiscox for comment. Gallagher has confirmed it was aware of the Hiscox email and would provide The Negotiator with further information when possible.

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Company Administration is essentially a balancing act between generating funds for creditors through asset sales, while an administrator exerts control over the company in the hope to revive the ailing business.

As seen with our handling of Humberts, the 175-year-old, national residential and commercial property agency fell into Company Administration, driven by the ultimate aim to survive company closure and act in the best interest of creditors, including staff and lenders.

Exiting the procedure through the sale process, it is common for the route to end in a variety of ways, including a Company Voluntary Arrangement or CVA.

But this begs the question; where do agency owners stand when it comes to repayments of Covid-related government Bounce Back loans?

During company administration, the Bounce Back Loan lender will be classed as an unsecured creditor, according to the order of priority prescribed by the Insolvency Act 1986.

During the insolvency procedure, any unsecured debts which cannot be repaid will be written off.

In some cases, a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA) may be the result of a company administration, for which your Bounce Back Loan repayment responsibilities will differ.

Creditors

A CVA is a company restructuring procedure for residential agencies crippled by expectations to raise volumes of cash for creditors.

If money allocated for company cash flow is being snapped up to repay creditors, restructuring creditor payments into a single monthly instalment could help reduce the financial burden endured by your business.

Bounce Back Loans can be included as part of this agreement with creditors and will not impact personal liability, unlike the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, for which selected lenders have been known to impose personal guarantees.

The ultimate end goal for both procedures is to compensate creditors and stabilise your agency for the year ahead.

Keith Tully is a partner at Real Business Rescue, part of the Begbies Traynor Group.

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The Supreme Court has backed the thousands of policy holders who have been refused pay-outs under business interruption insurance during Covid in a sensational judgement delivered this morning.

Five judges were tasked with considering an appeal brought by the FCA is what was a test case, and their 112-page verdict is now in, substantially allowing the FCA’s appeal, which was brought on behalf of policy holders following an earlier High Court judgement.

Thousands of small businesses including many estate agencies will now be due pay-outs after the judges ruled in policy holders’ favour on two key areas of argument.

These are that ‘disease clauses’ within business interruption policies can include Covid, and that agents who were told to close their branches by the government are due compensation.

Hiscox ruling

The judgement also specifically mentions Hiscox, a major supplier to the property industry, in regard to the ‘business closure’ point.

“The Hiscox wordings provide cover only where business interruption loss is caused by the policyholder’s ‘inability to use’ the insured premises,” the judgement says.

“The [High] Court held that this means complete and not merely partial inability to use the premises.

“The Supreme Court agrees that inability rather than hindrance of use must be established but holds that this requirement may be satisfied where a policyholder is unable to use the premises for a discrete business activity or is unable to use a discrete part of the premises for its business activities.

“The Supreme Court interprets wording requiring “prevention of access” to the premises in a similar manner.”

Sheldon Mills, Executive Director, Consumers and Competition at the FCA (pictured), says: “We will be working with insurers to ensure that they now move quickly to pay claims that the judgment says should be paid, making interim payments wherever possible.

“Insurers should also communicate directly and quickly with policyholders who have made claims affected by the judgment to explain next steps.”

Read the judgement in full.

Read our interview with one of the agents caught up in the test case.

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Three national newspapers yesterday reported that the government’s influential ‘Covid O’ sub-committee has discussed the likelihood of estate agent branches being shut and house moves permitted ‘only where absolutely necessary’ in England.

The measures is part of wider discussion at senior government echelons as to how much to tighten restrictions as the new variant Covid strain runs rampant.

An announcement had been expected during last night’s Downing Street Covid update lead by Home Secretary Priti Patel, but during questions from members of the public and journalists on tighter restrictions, she would only say that discussion were ‘ongoing’.

But both The Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph and Sun reported yesterday that health experts and ministers within the government are pushing Boris Johnson to go further and ban many activities so far allowed under the lockdown regulations.

He told nurses during a visit to a health centre in Bristol yesterday that lockdown measures would be tightened ‘if necessary’.

Other restrictions

As well as shutting high street agency branches and severely restricting house moves, as happened under the first lockdown last year, other options are being considered.

This includes the wearing of face masks in public, closing cafes and takeaways and increasing social distancing rules from one to two metres, closing nurseries and places of worship, stopping click-and-collect shopping except at supermarkets, and limiting how people can exercise outdoors.

Northern Ireland has already brought in regulations that could be used to shut estate agency branches, and Propertymark has reminded agents there that, although branches can stay open for the moment, members of the public are not allowed into their offices.

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