The scheme matches people who need homes with landlords who have properties to let. We pay the rent directly to the landlord, in advance. We also guarantee to pay up to six weeks’ rent as a tenancy deposit, to cover costs if your property is damaged by your tenants.
Additional benefits for you are:
Your property can be furnished or unfurnished. We will inspect your property before accepting it onto the scheme to make sure it meets our legal, and health and safety standards.
We set our Letting Income rates, which is the amount of guaranteed rent we will pay you, each year on 1 April. The rates for April 2022 – March 2023 are as follows:
Letting type | Letting Income rate |
---|---|
Room in shared house (HMO) | £388.92 pcm |
Studio flat | £792.83 pcm |
One bedroom | £792.83 pcm |
Two bedrooms | £947.40 pcm |
Three bedrooms | £1,146.86 pcm |
Four bedrooms | £1,545.74 pcm |
You can use a letting agent to manage your property – let prospective tenants know if you do as it may mean additional charges for them.
Tenants pay their rent to us and save an agreed amount every month over a three year period towards their deposit. At the end of the tenancy you can claim against the deposit if there is any damage to the property or its contents beyond normal wear and tear.
Email rgs@reading.gov.uk or call us on 0118 937 2233 if you are interested in finding out more about the scheme.
To be eligible you must meet all of the following criteria:
*To have a local connection you must have lived in Reading for 6 out of the last 12 months or 3 of the last 5 years or work in Reading or have immediate family who have lived in Reading for over 5 years.
If you are homeless or at risk of homelessness please contact the Homeless Prevention Service. We will assess your housing situation and your entitlement to Housing Benefit/Universal Credit. We will ask you to provide:
We will also ask your most recent landlord to provide a reference. If you don’t have a recent landlord we may ask for references from other sources.
You will be required to attend a two hour workshop which covers:
At the end of the session you will have the information and skills you need to be able to source your own accommodation. If/when we have any suitable properties we will invite you to view them – in the meantime we expect you to be actively looking for your own property as there are more tenants on the scheme than properties available. We will provide you with a leaflet about the Rent Guarantee Scheme and evidence that you have been accepted which you can show to potential landlords and agents.
Once you have moved into your new home, you must pay your rent to us and start saving towards your deposit. If you fall behind in paying your rent to us or saving towards your deposit you will be breaking the terms of the agreement and we may remove you from the scheme. This could result in you having to leave your home.