28th
Jul 2022
Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) is offering a one off cash ‘sweetener’ of £3,000 to encourage landlords with 3 or 4 bedroom properties to ‘house’ families immediately.
MBC is allowing any participating landlords to decide how much rent they will charge within reason -‘affordable’- however the cash incentive will only be available until the end of August.
The council’s landlord plea is to help house those in the most urgent need, those in danger of being made homeless and people on their housing register list.
MBC has set up a dedicated ‘Homefinder’ team who will work closely with all prospective tenants and landlords to match the most suitable residents to their properties and pledges to support them throughout the tenancy period.
The council is also offering other incentives including free extensive and comprehensive landlord insurance, a council bond as a deposit, free contracted specialised inventory service and six monthly tenancy sustainment visits, as well as free tenant check-ins and check-outs and advertising.
However each property must meet the council’s set of criteria to take advantage of the incentives.
Cllr Simon Webb, Lead Member for Housing and Health at MBC said:
“We really do urgently need landlords to help us if they have any available three or four bedroomed properties. We have decided to offer a generous one off payment to try and encourage anyone out there who might have a suitable property to work with our amazing Homefinder team. They will do all they can to support landlords get the best out of their properties.
“We want to continue to work with private landlords who have property in and around the Maidstone area so please contact our Homefinder Team if you can help. Ideally we need to reduce the burden on temporary accommodation and provide families with good quality, long-term sustainable housing.”
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