A local authority has launched a full-management lettings service for the private rented sector. It was already offering a tenant-find service.
Harrow Council in north London claims that it is the first full-management lettings service to be run by a local authority in the city.
It will find tenants, manage and inspect properties, and guarantee rent with up to three months of payment in advance.
The council says that the aim is to bridge the gap between the high demand for social housing and the lack of available homes, whilst giving landlords a guaranteed return on their property.
The new service is in addition to the council’s existing Help2Let scheme, which matches residents on the housing waiting list with private landlords looking for tenants and whose property meets certain standards. Landlords pay for the service, which has so far found over 200 tenants.
Councillor Bob Currie, portfolio holder for housing, said: “With major pressure on housing services, the private rented sector has become more important than ever. We are working with landlords in Harrow to create more choice for our residents.
“By supporting and boosting this sector, we can also drive up standards in the rental market. We are building up a database of available, decent properties in the area.”
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Council will undermine private business, because their sponsors don't like competition? Venal sick ... never will do something good for our country!!!!!!
Enough blaming :)
Sorry for off topic, maybe it will help to someone if want to rent a flat, http://www.propertiesabc.co.uk/flats-to-rent/
and free templates for tenancy agreement can be find there.
Ashley
Who would trust a Council to run anything that Private LL's and Agents are already doing successfully!?
Why not just allow the LL's and Agents to market their properties to LHA tenants the same way and at the same cost as the Housing Associations do and let the tenants decide.
This is typical of an out of touch Council interfering with local businesses.
Don't worry Crystal. Neath Port Talbot in South Wales started such a scheme last year, but such is the public sector bureaucratic mind-set that they have to tell the LL what he has to before they will accept him as a client.
I was interested at first because they have easy access to prospective HLA tenants - and that is unfair - but demands to spend money on flats that were finished to a good standard and passed by the building inspector only a couple of years previously led me to go on managing them myself.
Great! The public sector competing with private businesses. We pay our council taxes and they use the money to undermine local businesses in the area, jeopardising jobs. If, as David says in the previous comment, they are doing it at a loss its even worse as how can private businesses compete when they have to make money? I think it should be banned.
Wonder what they will charge. This must be political, because to get any business they will have to be 10% or less, and I can't see how a LA can run it at that price, so it's a loss-maker for them, but gives them what they politically want, control over tenants, like in the old council house days.
Someone should survey long-term benefit claimant tenants and ask them if they prefer council houses or private landlords.