Homelessness

Guidance for renting a private property

Before you consider renting privately, it would be beneficial to carry out some thorough research on what this entails. The 'How to rent checklist' produced by the Government will assist with up to date information and guidance. 

Property type

First of all you need to decide what type of property you need and where it should be.  Think about things like the type of property (bedsit, flat or house), what floor (ground floor, first floor), what areas of North Warwickshire you want to live in and how much you can afford to pay in rent.

To check for available properties check websites, local newspapers, supermarket noticeboards, letting and management agents.

Advice and websites to assist on private renting:

• Advice from Shelter, a charity working to deal with homelessness and poor housing
• Government guide to private renting
• Government 'How to rent booklet'

Websites to find a rented house, flat or room:

• Find rooms to rent in a shared house or flat
• Gumtree - Flats and houses available to rent
• Rightmove - Flats and houses offered by estate agents
• Zoopla - Flats and houses offered by estate agents
• Local letting agents

If you are planning on claiming housing benefit you will need to think about the level that you could be entitled to.  Housing benefit rules are that you need one bedroom for each of the following:

• a couple who live together
• someone else in the household who is 16 or over
• two children of the same sex (a child is under the age of 16)
• two children of any sex who are younger than 10

In addition to bedrooms, the rules also indicate the following (maximum) number of living rooms if:

• one to three people live in a property, this will equate to a maximum of one living room
• between four and five people live in a property, this will equate to two living rooms
• six or more people live in a property this, this will equate to three living rooms

If you are single and under 35 years, your housing benefit will be assessed differently (Single Room Rate) which means you will usually only be able to rent one room (a bedsit, or a room in a shared house).

If you have more rooms than this, housing benefit may not cover some of your rent and you will need to make up the difference yourself.

Housing benefit can be very complicated, so you should contact the Housing Benefit team on 01827 715341 to find out more information and make sure the property is right for you.  You will also need to think about how long you have got to find somewhere and move.  If you don't have much time to find somewhere new and move, you may want to widen the areas you'd be willing to live in to give yourself more choice and a better chance of finding somewhere suitable.

Tenancy deposit

In England and Wales, if you rent out your home or are renting on an assured shorthold tenancy that started after 6 April 2007, the tenants' deposit must be placed in one of four tenancy deposit protection (TDP) schemes. View further details on the tenancy deposit schemes.