Our steps towards a safe re-opening of viewings for our customers and staff

Our customers, clients and team mean everything to us at Oakley! We thrive on building positive relationships so it’s only natural that while we gradually reopen our property viewing appointments, we keep you all safe.

We’ve created some guidelines in our Residential Sales team to give you peace of mind, whether you’re a home buyer or seller. You can view the guidelines here or read on for more detail.

The guidelines that we have put in place are in accordance with the Government’s advice to our industry.

Viewing properties to buy or rent

We are fortunate in our agency that we deal with many New Build Homes and therefore these properties are unoccupied and in all cases, we work closely with the developers of these sites to ensure they are also adhering to the social distancing guidelines on-site and in their show homes. These include little things like keeping all the internal doors open and deeper cleaning procedures. In any vacant property viewing, whether a new build or older home, we will allow our visitor entry to the property and then wait outside so that you can look around the home. We’re naturally asking all our guests to avoid touching parts of the property such as opening doors or cupboards, turning on taps, etc, and we’re happy to answer as many questions as we can to help you get to know a property better. We’re happy to have conversations with you outside of the property if the weather allows!

We’re suggesting to all our customers that virtual viewings are your first choice so that all the family can look at the property on the screen together. We have some excellent software in place that allows you to take a tour around a property on all floors and into all rooms, giving you a great feel for room size. It also allows you to look around as many times as you like, whenever you like! When you come to a real viewing with us, we’re asking that no more than 2 people attend, and at the moment, the Government has advised that children shouldn’t come with you. In that case, you’re welcome to bring a close friend or another family member if your other half needs to watch the children.

Preparing your property for viewings if you’re a seller

As above we’ll try to limit the number of real-life viewings that take place if your property can be viewed virtually. We will be asking all sellers to pop out during real-life viewings, to minimise contact with our agents and visitors, and viewings will be strictly by appointment. We strongly recommend any pets are removed too, as is normal for viewings. We’ll ask you to keep the internal doors open so that we don’t need to touch them. You might want to consider leaving doors open on built-in storage or integrated appliances (not the fridge-freezer though!) so that your visitors can see these desirable features. You’ll need to provide handwashing facilities at the property – feel free to ask us about the safest way to do this.  We recommend that before and after viewings, you disinfect any door handles or areas that are likely to be touched.

And finally, if you meet any of our team in person, we will of course respect the two-metre rule. We may be wearing masks or gloves, but please don’t feel alarmed, we are still smiling underneath! You are welcome to wear whatever PPE makes you feel comfortable too, and we recommend a mask as a minimum.