Housing services

Tender description

The London Borough of Brent (or the Council) is seeking formal tenders for the provision of residential property management services (comprising property acquisition, viewings and the lettings process, administering decants, void periods and property handbacks), property maintenance, tenancy management, property inspections and rent collection. The Council currently operates a Housing Association Leasing Scheme (HALS) which it uses to provide temporary accommodation for homeless and potentially homeless families in line with its statutory duty under part VII of the Housing Act 1996 (as amended). The requirement is for providers to source suitable properties and enter into head leases with the property owners, generally for a 3-year term. The Council is provided with nomination rights to these properties and uses them to accommodate accepted homeless households in temporary accommodation, while they wait for a final offer of either social housing or a private rented sector property to end the main homeless duty. The tenants enter into an assured short hold tenancy with the provider and pay rent (generally via housing benefit paid to homeless families). Providers then provide management and maintenance services which are covered by the rent. In line with temporary accommodation subsidy rules, the weekly rent is calculated using 90 % of the January 2011 Local Housing Allowance (LHA) for the size of the property plus an element for management costs. The Council pays a weekly tendered nomination fee for each property which is the pricing element of this opportunity.