Renting to the Council

choyaa

Hi All,


I'm in the process of renting out my house which is being done through an Estate Agent, who haven't made very much progress over the past two months. A friend of mine recommended renting the house through the council who do all the leg work and charge a small commission.


Is this a viable option? I've never heard of it before.

BigAl94

Doesn't happen in Northern Ireland.

Tansy_1980

Not strictly true that this isn't an option for landlords in NI.

You can rent your home through Smartmove, a charity that receives funding from NIHE to find properties to house people from the social housing waiting list. Landlords get a free property management service and Smartmove will deal with any disputes that arise. They can also help tenants with benefit claims etc.
http://www.smartmove-housing.com/


Similarly, the Housing Executive is always looking for properties which can be used as temporary housing for people from the waiting list. This will generally be for families or people who cannot, for whatever, reason stay in a hostel (working households, for example, would be unlikely to be able to afford the rent on a hostel, but could afford the rent on a privately rented house). See the bottom of this page for details: http://www.nihe.gov.uk/index/corporate/procurement/tenders.htm

Also, if you're new to renting out property it's important that you're aware of all your legal responsibiltiies. You're ultimately responsible for issues, even if the property is managed by an agent so you must register and must make sure your agent has complied with the law. Smartmove, as an example, will make sure you're fully compliant with the law and that you've got all the necessary checks and documentation before they'll take you on as a landlord client. Some other agencies are a lot less professional. Loads of free advice for landlords here: http://housingadviceni.org/advice-landlords

Cherryscone

I would Imagine that most Tenants on The NIHE want a permanent home which Private Landlords could not offer .
had a nosey at that smart move link not very Professional they spelt Belfast wrong (Belafst) Coming from the Worlds worst Speller

Tansy_1980

Yes, but if the Housing Executive is taking on your property, it will be used as temporary housing while people wait for an offer - this can take years in some cases.

The other option, where you willingly move into the private sector instead of waiting for a social tenancy is only useful if your chances of getting a social tenancy are really low. If you're on the list for West Belfast, for example, you'll need at least 170-190 points to get an offer of housing. A homeless person may only have 90 points so will never, ever in a month of Sundays get a social tenancy in West Belfast, so they might need to either think about living somewhere else or going into the private market - this is where Smartmove comes in. It's a system that they've started using extensively in England where councils can now discharge their duty towards a homeless person by offering them a 12 month private tenancy. That's not the case here yet, so the person moving into the private housing has to sign to say that they are aware that they're giving up their legal right to wait for an offer of housing.

It's not for everyone, but it is a useful system in places where there are serious housing shortages. Not as good a solution as building more social homes, making developers include a proportion of social housing in all new build residential developments and scrapping the right to buy, mind you.

Zola.

What about putting your house on property pal etc, maybe the estate agent you have isnt much use?

spoonk1

Of course it happens here, My brother and his family where put in to temp accommodation till they got a permanent house and where told by the landlady that is all the house is used for, temp accommodation by the nihe, My Niece is in 1 at the minute landlord has 3 houses he rents to the nihe at a price of £200+ per week (dont know how true the price is but she was told this when she went to CAB about getting back to work after having a baby, they told her it wasnt viable cause of the cost) but the nihe definitely use private landlords to accommodate tenants through the nihe offices and not the landlord