Hi All,
Its my first time in this community and I wanted to get some advice please.
I’m starting up a homeless charity, in the West Midlands currently, but we’ll be expanding to the the rest of the UK soon. I’m fairly certain I’ll be able to raise a lot of money through it but the aim is vey simply to get people off the streets so I thought the best way to do that would be through private rentals.
The idea is to set them up in a property covering whatever furnishings, rent, and more likely security deposits are needed to get them in the property which would then be covered by DSS.
Obviously these are the opposite of ideal tenants so I imagine it wont be easy to get these agreements made but since we should have decent funding and can offer a fair bit of security I hope that it will be doable. I’m looking to get a reliable, constant source of new tenancies at as reasonable a rate as possible so I want to work out what kind of offer to make to the landlords to make it worth their while and at the same time to not overpay.
Hopefully some of you will become my partners in the future.
Also, I suspect that we may end up taking on tenancies ourselves covering the bills and deposits and then sublet them as a way of making it happen. So if you guys could give me advice on actually managing properties with what I suspect could be really difficult tenants that would be appreciated too.
The opposite of ideal tenants? you say. Generally maybe . Most private landlords will steer clear . . It will never be worth my while. Let the goverment “handle” it
I’m having trouble taking this seriously. It all sounds extraordinarily naive aiming to have a nationwide business “soon” when you admit you don’t know how to actually manage a single property. Personally, I think you’re going to be in over your head before you can blink.
So, here’s a first question: why are you convinced that private rentals are “the best way” to alleviate homelessness?
Rent ro rent, seems every man and his dog is wanting to do this now.
The pitfalls are endless…have you any experience at all in this area?
A friend of mine lived in a block of respectable flats and one owner decided to hand over his property to a “charity” for the vulnerable. 3 or 4 tenants passed through and it made the lives of the other residents unbearable. The “vulnerable” tenants lived up to all of the stereotypes; drugs, music, aggression, rubbish, coming and going all hours and just utter contempt towards all other residents.
Owners and other tenants complained so much to authorties and ultimately prevented the property from being used for this purpose.
So you would be renting the properties from the landlord?
So ll advertises property nor.ally at £800 pm you then rent it off him (for that amount) then the local authority that it comes under pays £66.50 per week (as my LA does) so who makes up the shortfall or are you expecting Ll to reduce the property by 100s a month
The tenant reports a problem who would YOU expect to fix it? Your contarctor.or the ll
Again assuming that the LA are paying SOME of the rent is it paid to you or the LL or.the tenant?
I am not a ll so these are just points i have thought whilst reading your post am aure the ll will think of far better and a lot more points that you probably havent considered
While your efforts concerning the homelessness issue is admirable, there are a few problems with this IMO.
this is essentially a “rent-to-rent” strategy which most landlords would not touch. Some (most?) mortgage lenders and insurers also won’t allow this type of rent arrangement anyway.
you mentioned " want to work out what kind of offer to make to the landlords to make it worth their while and at the same time to not overpay" which seems unlikely given what you call “really difficult tenants”. But you also mention being able to raise a lot of money abd obtaining “decent funding” (through the charity?). It just seems too contradictory.
Why would landlords want to enter into such an arrangement given the current level of the demand and competition for properties from less “difficult” tenants? What is in it for landlords if you are not paying significantly more than the market rate to make it worth their while having “opposite of ideal tenants”?
What happens when these “really difficult tenants” end up being really difficult?
Hey tatemono,
I’m sure I am naive, but I’m not wide-eyed and I dont have any misapprehensions about the sort of people im dealing with.
To give a bit of background the housing is a small part of what i’ll be doing. My history is in ecomm and the model revolves around that, where people can donate online directly to a specific homeless person to get them food and a bed for the night. All of that side of the process is developed but the aim isnt to just fund homeless people its to get them off the streets. So housing is vital, but still it hasnt been my main focus.
Im going to pilot it in a west midlands city, probably wolverhampton, to make all the mistakes I’m sure I will make on a small scale, but like all ecomm the process will naturally scale so if it works it makes sense to be nationwide.
Im pretty certain I’ll end up raising a fair bit of money through this charity. To answer your question, having a fund of £X thousand pounds to help an individual get off the streets, and wanting to approach it like amazon would (with as little human intervention as possible) I cant think of any alternative to private rentals. Can you?
Rent to rent is a not ideal fall-back. Ideally I would like to help them get a place with a private landlord, providing funds for extra security deposit and any dss shortfalls and then have very little involvement going forward.
I fully respect your not wanting to be anywhere near it, most sensible landlords wouldnt. But I want to find the ones who would.
Why are you now posting under a different name?
You mentioned that this will be a charity. Do you have a charity registration number?
Are you intending to operate as a Registered Social Landlord?
Are you linked to any other larger body, such as a Housing Association that will endorse what you’re doing?
If not these things, how are people to have confidence that this is not a scam?
er… no. It won’t do anything like e-commerce because it’s in no way related to it.
Are you even aware that the nations that make up “the rest of the UK” have different rules about letting property? That should throw a spanner in your plans to “naturally scale”.
This has to be a wind up, but it’s amusing nonetheless.
