By signing up to the Tenant Matching Service, you agree to:
- Offer your available rental properties (of your choosing) to the Council, before advertising the available property elsewhere, so that the Council can match the property to prospective tenants, taking into account the Tenant Matching Service allocation criteria
- Make any and all property offers through the scheme in the manner as directed by the Council
- Not unreasonably refuse prospective tenants put forward by the Council in relation to an offered property
- Register for the Council’s Landlord Hub (“the Hub”), setting up your own user account and registering on the Hub the rental properties you wish to make available through this scheme, to include uploading, and updating upon expiry, the following required compliance documentation: a valid gas safety certificate, a valid Electrical Installation Condition Report, an Energy Performance Certificate, and a valid HMO licence (if applicable)*
- Ensure that any all properties offered to, and let through, the service, are of a safe, lettable condition
- Be set-up as a goods/services supplier on the Council’s accounting system so that the Council can provide any required £100 ‘thank you’ payments
- Provide bank details and supporting banking documentation as required by the Council in order to be set-up on the Council's accounting system, and provide the Council with any updated banking information should these details change
- Accept a Bond Guarantee provided by the Council in lieu of the usual cash deposit
- Provide access to the Council into any property offered through the scheme prior to a tenancy commencement for the purposes of compliance and safety inspections, and for the Council to produce an inventory with respect to any Bond Guarantee
- Fulfil your legal obligations as a landlord in all relevant matters
- Inform the Council if any significant tenancy issues arise during the term of the tenancy, such as significant rental arrears or a breakdown in communication with the tenant, and before any notice to terminate the tenancy is served.
*Alternatively, you could opt for the Council to register your available rental properties and upload the associated compliance documentation on your behalf. In this event the Council would advise you of the information it requires in order to appropriately register the properties.
In providing its Tenant Matching Service, the Council agrees to:
- Put forward prospective tenants in relation to properties offered through the scheme, which the Council deem suitable and matched to the offered property, taking into account the Tenant Matching Service allocation criteria
- Respond to all property offers within 5 workings days from the date that the offer was made, by either putting forward a prospective tenant, or by refusing an offered property where no suitable prospective tenant can be matched to the property
- Provide an alternative prospective tenant in the event that a prior prospective tenant put forward was refused by the landlord, and do so within 5 working days from the date that the landlord informs the Council of their refusal
- Provide a £100 ‘thank you payment’ for each successful letting through the scheme, with payment to be issued promptly once the relevant tenancy has commenced
- Provide a Bond Guarantee in lieu of the usual cash deposit, with the Bond Guarantee indemnifying the landlord against damage or rental arears up to a specified amount
- Ensure that all properties offered through, and let through, the scheme, are evidenced by the landlord to be of a safe, lettable condition, before the commencement of the tenancy
- Ensure that it provides clear instructions on its website regarding how property offers should be made to the Council under this service
- Ensure that, for each property let through the service, the property information and required compliance documentation is registered on or uploaded to the Hub prior to the property being let, and continues to be updated as and when new information or evidence is provided by the landlord.
Acknowledgements
It is acknowledged by all parties that:
The Council reserves the right to refuse to accept any landlord onto the scheme, or de-register any landlord from the scheme, for any reason as deemed sufficient by the Council. This is most likely to be the case where the Council reasonably believes the landlord to be unsuitable or inappropriate for the scheme, for example, where the landlord has a corresponding entry on the Rogue Landlord Database, or where the landlord is under investigation by the Council in relation to landlord or property offences, or where the landlord has been repeatedly issued with penalties or warnings by the Council in relation to landlord or property offences.
Should any landlord participating in the scheme repeatedly refuse matched tenants without sufficient reason, the Council may decide to deregister said landlord from the scheme.
In any case there may be a limit to the number of suitable alternative prospective tenants the Council is able to provide following a prior refusal of a prospective tenant by the landlord, and thus the availability of an alternative prospective tenant is never guaranteed.
The Council may vary or alter these service terms and conditions at any time, and in this event will inform all landlords currently signed-up to the scheme.