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Decision details
Management of Rents for the Syrian Resettlement scheme
Decision Maker: Director: Adult Social Care
Decision status: Recommendations Approved
Is Key decision?: No
Is subject to call in?: No
Purpose:
The Syrian Resettlement Team delivers the
Vulnerable Person’s Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) on behalf of
the Home Office. The cost of the scheme is fully funded by the Home
Office.
The LA identifies a property and pays rent on the property and then
the Home Office matches a refugee family from the Middle East and
North African region to resettle in the UK. The Home Office budget
is used to fund the rent for the property until the new family
arrives and is in receipt of benefits. This can be six months full
rental costs. In addition the budget funds the deposit and the
difference between the rental cost and the tenant contribution and
overall the VPRS budget fund 50% of rental costs.
Home Turf Lettings (a subsidiary of DHI Bath) sourced 20 properties
to house the first 20 VPRS families and now manage the properties
on behalf of landlords. The VPRS pay Home Turf Lettings a
management fee which is 20% of the value of the rent for each
property. In total £446,040 will have been paid to Home Turf
lettings since the inception of VPRS.
From September 2017, the Syrian Resettlement Team decided to source
accommodation inhouse. The Syrian Resettlement Team uses the
Bristol Credit Union to collect rents from tenants and to make
monthly rental payments to landlords. In August 2019, the Syrian
Resettlement Team is renting 52 properties owned by private sector
landlords. The Bristol Credit Union charges a management fee of
£10 per account per month. From January 2018 – August
2019 the Bristol Credit Union have been funded £12,750 for
their management fees. In August 2019 the Bristol credit union is
managing 61 tenant accounts and 52 landlord accounts.
Decision:
To approve the transfer of £50,000 for
outstanding payments due to Home Turf Lettings and allow the
transfer of £80,000 to the Bristol Credit Union between
September 2019 and December 2019.
Alternative options considered:
It is vitally important that the Bristol VPRS
has an effective relationship with landlords. We don’t want
to run the risk of landlords withdrawing properties and putting
vulnerable families on the street. If the rental payments
aren’t managed effectively there would be major complaints
from landlords. If the scheme fails to build positive relationships
with landlords there is reputational risk with the central
government who are expecting the council to manage the needs of the
families.
When the tenants arrive, they have high social and medical needs,
they do not speak English and they are unfamiliar with managing
their tenancies and high levels of support are needed to enable
them to manage their tenancies and pay rents. The payment system
needs to be personalised to flag Universal Credit payment errors
and tenant payment errors to ensure rental income is maximised. The
Council's inhouse finance system is not designed to manage this. If
rents are not paid on time there are consequences. Private
landlords with quality properties can charge market rents which are
£400 a month higher than the local housing allowance and the
Bristol VPRS rents are based on LHA rates. The landlords choose to
rent properties to the Bristol VPRS scheme because the team take
most of the risks out of renting to a vulnerable family but if
rents are not paid on time, landlords will consider giving notice
to quit.
Publication date: 01/10/2019
Date of decision: 27/08/2019