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£5,000 for every tenant at risk of eviction - new council scheme

A pilot scheme described as helping “tenants threatened with eviction to stay in their homes” has been extended after Cornwall Council won hundreds of thousands of pounds in new funding. 

Up to £5,000 is available from the Tenancy Sustainment and Rescue Project to help tenants of privately-owned properties who have fallen behind in their rent and, as a result, are at risk of homelessness.

In December 2021, the council and Citizens Advice Cornwall were awarded over £800,000 from the Covid Outbreak Management Fund and from government money to deal with homelessness. Since then the scheme has helped more than 40 households to remain in their homes with further support in place to help to address the reason for the rent arrears.

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With the pilot now at an end, the organisations have received an extension of the scheme meaning they have £434,000 to support households until the end of March next year. 

This provides the funds to support work with people who either ask for help or are referred by third party organisations. 

The scheme is open to landlords who are thinking about serving notice due to rent arrears as well as tenants at risk of homelessness.

Citizens Advice Cornwall will work with tenants and landlords on a case-by-case basis looking at the reason for the arrears and provide advice and assistance to support them in sustaining their tenancy. In exchange for addressing the arrears and providing support, landlords will then be expected to allow renters to remain in the properties for up to 12 months after they have been given assistance.

Cornwall councillor Olly Monk says: “Preventing homelessness is a priority. Keeping people in their homes is clearly very important, especially given the current pressures on housing availability. This scheme will help to ensure that people who have perhaps fallen on hard times and may otherwise have become homeless will be able to stay where they are.”

And Gill Pipkin from Citizens Advice Cornwall adds: “Our charity is seeing ever increasing demand from people struggling in the current cost of living crisis. Security of housing is a key element of keeping people safe and reducing pressure - this funding is helping us make a real difference to people in crisis, enabling them to stay in their properties and maintain their social, work and support networks.”

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    The £5000 headline is a bit misleading as it then goes on to say up to £5000.

    I welcome these schemes if it enables tenants and landlords to work together to retain tenancies. Sometimes all it takes is the involvement of a third party to help the tenant with budgeting advice, negotiate with other creditors and provide a relatively small amount of funding to get things back on track.
    The LHA is woefully inadequate in some areas of the country and tenants are having to make up the shortfall from money that was intended to pay for other things such as food or utilities.
    Last week in the entire 500 square mile BRMA where I operate there wasn't a single 3 bedroom property available on Rightmove for anywhere close to LHA rent. Most were at least £300 a month more than LHA. Freezing the LHA in the middle of a cost of living crisis was one of the governments most stupid ideas. How exactly is a key worker on minimum wage with UC top ups supposed to afford to make up a rental shortfall, buy petrol so they can get to work (Cornwall doesn't have a great bus service), pay increased utility and food costs without additional funding from discretionary housing funds or charities? All it takes is an unexpected car repair or emergency dental treatment to completely derail their finances.

    People who can't pay are very different to people who won't pay and as long as the charity understands the difference it's a much needed scheme.

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    This scheme will only delay the unaffordability, in times of financial crisis for millions its always good to see Landlords are putting up rents to ensure they dont have to shoulder the increase in their own energy bills, the only solution I can see is the state building or buying homes and becoming the biggest Landlords as they should not be in the game for profit

     
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    So the landlord has to allow the tenant to stay for 12 months and the tenant knows they cannot be evicted for 12 months and stops paying, don't think many landlords will fall for that one

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    That's the way I read it. We pay up and then they can play up again straight away. No thanks.

     
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    Sounds great until you find out you would be dealing with the council. Pass thank you.

     
    Jason Flicker

    LL's won't have any choice. It's do it or be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

     
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    Read the article again Jason it's not compulsory for a landlord to enter into this scheme, I certainly would not

     
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    The Councils and Citizens Advice seem to have a one size fits all to keep any tenant in the property and make it has difficult and costly for the Landlord as they can. They should target their resources on Genuine Tenants in Problems not scammers and rent Dodgers. If they want Landlord support.

  • James Scollard

    It’s not a solution, it’s kicking the can down the road.
    For £40k, they could buy a 3 bed mobile home, so could house 33 tenants for £440k, or, a freehold guesthouse, or several properties.
    Instead, spent £433k in 12 months & no long term solution.

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    Have you seen the price of property in Cornwall?

     
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    This is why charities moved to equipping people to help themselves - a hand up not a hand out.

     
    Jason Flicker

    A 3 bed mobile home costs 100k plus site fees.

     
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    Most of the tenants who will be helped by these schemes are genuine people who desperately want to keep their home. The scam artists and rent dodgers wouldn't want the third party digging around in their finances.
    Agreeing to up to another 12 months if all arrears have been cleared and there is a viable plan going forwards isn't exactly onerous. It will be up to landlords to choose whether to engage with the scheme or not.
    Some tenants are very good tenants apart from the odd payment glitch, others are a complete pain in the posterior and nothing would induce a landlord to prolong the tenancy.
    As landlords we all have different ideas, different tenants profiles and different levels of tolerance.
    Our backgrounds and life experience will hugely influence how we all feel about the behaviour of our tenants and what we will or won't tolerate.

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    sorry, your wrong some renters don't think that they can be set to zero arrears and then pay normally it's just free money, and they can once more stop paying the rent and I speak from experanace, my tenant got a DRO which went I lost 4,500.00 they were then insolvent so it when the rent and other firms who are owed to zero council tax water taxis phones internet all lost money and who do you think pays for the money they lost? So the tenant carries on until the arrears piled up gain, So tenants feels that they have a right not to pay the rent, and just aren't bothered about the arrears. Still, they are gone now.
    But No I would not go with the council wanting a full year of the tenant thinking they can do whatever they like.

     
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    Many landlords are on the verge of selling up because of the impending change in the law, and therefore considerations about non-payment of rent are quite different from what they once were.

    From a personal perspective, I am waiting for my tenants to be ready to leave themselves and then I will put the houses on the market. I hope that I don't have to ask anyone to leave; it depends how quickly the Renters Reform Bill will be in force, of course.

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    With Reply to Jo , Rent dodgers and scammers would not care about third Parties poking around in their affairs, The authorities and Citizens wont care if they are rent dodgers or scammers their remit is to keep the Tenant in the Property for as long as possible. That is why schemes need to be selective .

    And I agree with Ellie ,

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    James, my friend you are missing the point. The Council’s don’t want to House those people they want you to have them.
    There is a Survey live on-line Regarding Section 21 on Landlord Zone by Paul Shamplina, ‘it says so what you want to tell Government’ as if they didn’t know ?.it a tick box Monkey thing mostly pretty useless and they think it best Survey ever. Anyway have to say..

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    I don’t operate in that market, but…. I would not be too concerned about scammer’s etc, it’s the mentally ill, drug users or alcohol dependent tenants, if they spend their UC on all manner of substances , will the council keep bailing them out ?

  • Matthew Payne

    Olly is being slightly disingenuos, the priority maybe is to prevent homelessness but only as a result of a stark budgeting exercise done in their accounts department. A far more honest statement would have been, "We would much rather use central goverment cash to keep these people in their homes, so they don't then become our problem, whereupon we have to start spending our own. Our chief exec likes her £185,000 salary, and we have another 17 execs all earning well over £100,000!"

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    It seems all anti-private landlords CEO’s are on top dollar, just keep knocking us, a smoke screen to keep attention off themselves.

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    Reading that it means that each family is getting £20k per annum, which will be of course, in addition to their benefits. I used to get the local Cornish papers on line and their is a lot of crime caused by alcoholics and druggies. Really these subsidies are to keep them out of jail. !

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    Jo Westlake, you are horribly naive. Or a virtue signaller. Unfortunately even with the best will in the world, if a tenant can get a free property they will inevitably take it. When Thatcher have away council properties the tenants were quoted as saying they deserved the property because the amount they had paid. Their rent didnt even cover the maintenance, and they didn't pay council tax. Inevitably, after a short time they liquidated their assets.

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    Edwin - another day, another insult. It's not the first time you have accused me of virtue signalling and last time you noticeably refused to even confirm if you were actually a landlord. Are you or aren't you?

    My business model works for me and my tenants.
    Do you even have any tenants?

    Maybe it's because I have lived through periods of poverty myself and fully understand how a little help can go a very long way that I have a more humanitarian attitude. Maybe it's because I treat all my tenants with dignity and respect and always assume the best that I actually do receive their best.

     
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    I treat my tenants with dignity and respect, they are my customers, however if they don't pay that all changes very quickly, assume the best ?? I've found in life it's best to assume the worst, then you can't be disappointed

     
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    I rent to the council. My neighbours aren't happy. Since 2018 one family got evicted. There was £6k of damage according to my neighbour. I know their dog mauled another dog too.

    The other week someone erected a shed in the garden to grown cannabis. All the foil inside etc. Messed about with the electrics so my fire alarm panel stopped working. Council don't want to know but I keep chasing. Only because it's afire hazard do they jump. Money rolls in and they manage it but not sure how long I will let them keep it for.

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    Nick - I can bet your neighbours are not happy 😱

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    Edwin, Jo has been very good on here and very informative her heart is in the Business. We all say things sometimes we auth not and obviously you hit a nerve, apology wouldn’t go a miss.

  • PossessionFriendUK PossessionFriend

    The Govt and Local Govt - Councils are playing ' Robin Hood ' with tax-payers money !

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    I think the Tenants should pay the landlord 2 months extra when they want to leave. He has the cost of finding replacement Tenants , a vacant period and make good the unfair wear & tear they left behind.
    White Paper take note how do you like it on the other foot. Why should a LL give an Ex-Tenant money to skedaddle off somewhere else, they are not our Children and stop trying to make them our responsibility.

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    There could be a series of circumstances when tenants have to pay an additional two months rent to landlords in legislation e.g. anti-social behaviour, malicious or reckless damage to the property, causing obstructions to common areas so they create a fire safety risk, failure to leave at the end of the contract period etc.

     
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    I have been a landlord for over 30 years and the stories l can tell are horrendous. Dont forget 2 landlords and 1 landlady have been murdered by their tenants. I was ruined by Thatcher and it's taken years to get back. I cringe when l see landlords prosecuted for faulty electrics. I have had lots of dodgy electrical tests and reports, and l am an electrical engineer ! I have taken an elecsa certified company to court, but every obstruction seems to have been caused, l finally got judgement against him and the letting agent case has been adjourned. And the same with Gas !, and am wondering wether to litigate ?

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