Landlords: you hold the keys to end homelessness
14.03.2019
If you’re a private landlord with property in or around Edinburgh, our Help to Rent team would love to hear from you!
Help to Rent Edinburgh is a new service, commissioned by City of Edinburgh Council and run by Crisis. We can help you find and keep good tenants, supporting you and them when you need it, for free.
How we can help you
We can offer new and experienced landlords
- a free tenant find service, where all tenants have been assessed by Crisis and the Council as able to manage a private tenancy and have had training and support, where this is needed
- advice, support and guidance on letting regulations, energy options and grants
- a legal deposit guarantee to the value of a cash deposit (a “bond”), covering damage, loss and arrears
- contact with a named member of the Help to Rent team throughout the duration of the tenancy
- a separate support officer for tenants, to help them settle in, deal with benefit claims, budgeting, changes of circumstances and any tenancy problems
All we ask of you
- that you accept a deposit guarantee (or “bond”), instead of a cash deposit
- a Private Residential Tenancy (PRT) agreement and legally required information for the tenant, which meets Scottish Government guidance
- that you are a registered landlord, and that you have a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO) license if your property requires one
- that the property meets legally required energy, safety and repair standards
We can provide landlords advice and support on all of the above, but we can’t help a tenant move in until they are in place.
Why we need your help
In Edinburgh, over 3,100 households presented as homeless to City of Edinburgh Council last year. At any one time, almost 1400 households are in temporary accommodation, including more than 1000 children. Over 500 households a night live in Bed and Breakfast-style accommodation.
People can spend years waiting for an affordable home in the social rented sector, their lives effectively on hold.
Services can and do improve their experiences of homelessness. But only landlords can end it.
As a landlord willing to offer a secure, affordable property to someone who’s homeless in Edinburgh, you’ll end their homelessness and change their life. You’ll give someone an opportunity to settle down, find or keep a job and leave what’s often a negative and damaging experience behind.
More information
If you’d like to find out more, get in touch with our Landlord Liaison Officer, or check out the downloads below.
We’d also like to hear from you if you don’t want to commit right now, but have ideas or suggestions on how we could develop our service for landlords.
Sam Gajewski, Landlord Liaison Officer
Email sam.gajewski@crisis.org.uk, call 0131 209 7700
Crisis, Crichton House, 4 Crichton's Close, Edinburgh, EH8 8DT
For more information, download our
Landlord small service leaflet (PDF)