Renting - What is a Deposit Bond Scheme?

kelly2413

I am hoping to move into privately rented accommodation soon but will, unfortunately, have to claim housing benefit temporarily as I am a (recently) single parent and full-time university student. I saw that some landlords will accept DSS or Deposit Bond Schemes but I can't seem to find much information about them.

Are they just for single people or those without children? I am looking at a large deposit of £1180 including admin fees and I simply cannot afford that.

Can anyone give me advice?

tbs624

The Bond is a written guarantee from your local Council (sometimes with extra voluntary/charity funding) and it promises to re-imburse a LL where a Tenant leaves having caused damage to the property. It takes the place of a cash deposit that you would normally pay to the LL.

There are usually set eligibility requirements: ie, you can’t already be in the property, you have to be homeless or within 28 days of being made homeless, you have to unemployed or on a low income, and have some local connection etc but AFAIAA they are only available to single people or childless couples.
Your local Area Housing Office should be able to advise you - there is a Council Officer who deals with private rentals too.It may be that there is a local source of funding available to you from elsewhere: your University Welfare Officer should be able to give you guidance on applying for hardship grants and all CABs have access to a couple of huge databases on all sorts of random sources of funding from various trusts and charities. Good luck.

kelly2413

Thanks for that, you have confirmed what I originally thought and pointed me in the right direction :beer:

silvercar

They are becoming more acceptable as it saves the landlord the hassle of registering the deposit.