tinytears

Has anyone done this? Do I just contact them and offer the house to them? I've seen it mentioned a number of times but have no idea how to go about arranging it.

If you can point me in the right direction I'd be very grateful.

Edited to say I have a list of housing associations, just googled it but wondered if there was an easy way of moving this forward.

Almost Canadian

I would have to be really desperate before I would even begin to think about this.

tinytears

We are - it is that or hand the keys back!

JoolsGod

I think you just enquire with them and see if they are taking any on at the moment. The bad thing about it is you have no say on who lives in your home! I have lived next door to a house that is rented out by the council and there has been some dodgy people in there who have not kept the property tidy at all. However, you are guaranteed the rent every month.

From your other posts i know how desperate you are so if it is a way for you to get to Canada, then i would do it.

Good Luck.

englishrose1

Ok guys this the answer that you are all looking for. Social affordable housing across the UK is in short supply, and given the economic situation demand for social housing is going to get worse.

Local authorities across the country offer landlord rent guarantee schemes. Basically they will house a family who is homeless or severely overcrowded in your property. They will basically give you 6 months rent upfront as a sweetener.

Bare in mind you cannot choose who lives in your property, and they could be the family from hell! If you are friends with your neighbours you have to be prepared that you may loose their friendship.

Some local authorities will do agree to do the repairs, also depending on how long you agree for it to be rented.

Be prepared for your house that you know as home, to be given back trashed as not everyone looks after a home. But then you may be lucky and get someone who does not want to be on a purpose built estate, and they treat it like a palace.

Depending on where you live will depend who deals with the local authority statutory duty of housing families that they have a statutory duty assist.

In some places it is the local authority, and in others housing associations do it on behalf of the local authority. On a contractual basis.

All local authorities have a local housing allowance cap that they will pay for a property, depending on the size of there units.

You need to check out your local authority website as they will have a maximum amount they will pay based on the size of the property. For example they may pay £120 per week. It is important that you only charge up to the local housing allowance, as you it is unlikely that your tenants would make up any shortfall. It all depends on your mortgage commitment and whether you can afford to pay the difference of what you will get from Housing benefit.

Ironically I have been to a meeting today, and this is an option that local authorities will be using more and more because there is a lack of stock amongst social housing providers in the UK.

Alan2005

I agree totally. Why can't you just rent this out on the open market through an agency?

gryphea

WE rent our house in the UK and we would have problems doing this as:

1. the mortage provider has to approve tenants and does minor league vetting , eg credit check. This wouldn't work for such tenants. So they would refuse permission.

2. we would find it difficult to get decent insurance

3. we have rent guarentee insurance should our carefully vetted tenants (by our letting agent) somehow turn bad. We are only sold this as the tenants are lowish risk

4. I suspect these sorts of tenants want furnished which brings another set of problems, you are then liable for council tax for months it is empty (as I understand it!)

I would have to be more than desparate to take this option as tenants generally have a lot of potential to do damage.

Gryph

tinytears

Thank you. The reason we are thinking of doing it this way is the guaranteed rental each month. We would be at serious risk of losing the house if we cannot get it rented out or have to find rent for Canada and pay the mortgage on the UK property. This way we could review the situation in 12 months knowing we had a contract with the council/housing association.

Still hoping to sell (obviously), there has been (touch wood) a huge improvement over the past week or so in the anti social issues as the police are making a concerted effort to crack down now and I've only had to call them out once since new years eve.

Thanks for your reply.

Thank you for such a lengthy answer, I will obviously be doing more research. I know this sounds awful but I have got to look after my own family's needs first as I am sure my neighbours would look after theirs too. We are friendly but by no means friends.

I will find out as much as I can on the rentals. Basically as the house is a new build, we will leave nothing in there and will redecorate as we need to at the end of each tennancy.

My father used to have properties and it made no difference whether private or council rented, the house 99% of the time was handed back in a terrible state.

Thanks again for such a great answer this is most helpful.

Thanks for your response. The problem is that there are so many empty rental properties in our area which is why we are considering this route. Believe me, plan A is to sell it is the route we would much rather go, even if we only manage to pay off the mortgage and not look at getting any equity at all. However, realistically that may not happen and I have to look at all other options. Believe me this is just short of handing the keys back.

tinytears

Damn and blast, our local council only offer their own "stock" of housing, no others.

So there goes that one.

G586

http://www.orchard-shipman.com/

These guys take the lease and then sub-let to social tenants with a repair clause to put back into good order, guaranteed rent, etc.

I'm surprised you say 99% of the time, properties were handed back in poor condition. I'm a firm believer in that if the property is offered in good order, repairs done promptly and the tenants treated like customers, then you get the house back in a reasonable state.

Doesn't always work and requires a good agent but with the private rental sector being larger now and not housing of last resort, things are different to a few years ago when things were different with the legislation.

englishrose1

The info that I gave you guys was hot off the press. It not had a chance to cascade down to local authority staff yet. Basically senior managers across the social housing sector with statutory duty are to be tasked with obtain a good pool of private landlord stock, as it is predicted that the affordable housing situation is set to become chronic. Tiny Tears you local authority may have said no today for a number of reasons. Lack of awareness of the new scheme, because they still have a long way to get rid of there stock, and will try and shift their bad/poor stock first. I can assure withing six months withing 6 months this scheme will be in operation nationwide in areas where there is a shortage of family housing.

Lenders at this time are being flexible and will become more flexible about you renting and will consider waivering the fees in the next 12 months, some money is better than none. Banks want the money coming in. The banks are playing hard ball at the minute, but they will have to play ball soon! Just you watch and see!

tinytears

Thanks Englishrose. Just rushing out so apologies if this is short and to the point. We want to swap the mortgage to interest only - do we need to tell them that we are planning on moving out of the country? Will reply later, must dash!

Thanks.