Home/Care providers/Care Staff Accommodation
Care-sector property
Accommodation for care staff.
Maine Property Solutions is a property company. We find, prepare and manage buildings — we do not provide care, support or supervision, and we are not registered with CQC or Ofsted. Care and support in any property we manage is provided by the registered provider, not by us.
We are looking for our first placement in this sector. Tell us the specification and we will look for it.
This is the one sector in the lane where nobody is being cared for in the building. It is a shared house for working adults, and its buyer is an employer rather than a commissioner. It is also contracting, not growing, and we will not write it up as a growth story.
Who buys it
Who buys it — Care Staff Accommodation
The party writing the cheque is an employer, not a public commissioner. That employer will hold its own care registration — but here it is buying housing for staff, which is an ordinary commercial letting decision made out of an operations or HR budget.
Who is registered, and who is not
Who is registered, and who is not — Care Staff Accommodation
No care regulator comes near the building, for the simple reason that no care is delivered to the people living in it. Sponsor guidance from the Home Office sets no accommodation standard for housing a sponsored adult worker. HMO licensing from the council is the only licensing regime in play.
How it is paid for
How it is paid for — Care Staff Accommodation
The employer pays rent commercially. An allowance given toward accommodation cannot be counted toward the salary requirement on the sponsorship route, which constrains how an employer can structure the arrangement.
What the property has to be
What the property has to be — Care Staff Accommodation
A shared house of unrelated working adults. Three or more triggers HMO status, and five or more in two or more households triggers mandatory licensing. Practically: ordinary three to six bedroom stock near the employer's sites.
What the lease looks like
What the lease looks like — Care Staff Accommodation
A commercial letting to a company tenant. There is no care contract underneath it and no commissioner behind it, so the covenant is simply the employer's.
What the building has to carry
What the building has to carry — Care Staff Accommodation
The ordinary landlord set, plus HMO licensing. Nothing care-specific attaches to this building at all: fire risk assessment, gas safety, fixed wiring inspection, alarms, furniture fire safety, and the HMO management duties whether or not a licence is required.
Honest limits
What is not possible here
This sector is contracting, not growing
The overseas care-worker route is closed to new applicants and demand for staff accommodation is falling with it. Residual demand comes from sponsored workers already in the UK rather than from new arrivals. We would rather write that down than sell a growth story into a shrinking market.
Being exempt accommodation does not exempt you from HMO licensing
The word exempt in exempt accommodation refers to housing benefit, not to licensing, and the two are routinely confused. Being exempt accommodation does not exempt a building from HMO licensing. Mandatory licensing is triggered by five or more people in two or more households; what kind of occupancy agreement people hold makes no difference to whether a building is an HMO; and the single care setting that regulations lift out of the HMO definition is a registered care home, which is not what any of this is. Additional and selective licensing schemes can catch a property below the mandatory threshold as well.
The line, drawn plainly
What we can do, and what we cannot
What we can do
- Find property against a written specification — size, layout, location, adaptation, tenure and the compliance set the building has to carry.
- Prepare it: works, furnishing, certificates and the paperwork a provider or a commissioner will want to see before it takes the building on.
- Manage the building afterwards, if that is what is wanted — repairs, contractors, certificate renewals and the landlord side of the relationship.
- Put the proposed terms, the works and the timetable in front of you in writing before anything is committed.
What we do not do
- We do not provide care, support or supervision, of any kind, to anyone.
- We are not registered with CQC and we are not registered with Ofsted. A landlord letting a building to a care provider is carrying on neither regulated activity and has nothing to register.
- We do not employ, supply or manage care or support staff, and we make no claim about the vetting of anyone else's.
- We hold no framework place, no contract and no position on any supplier list with any council, health body or government department.
- We hold no care-sector placement anywhere. Maine Property Solutions operates two properties, both in Coventry, and has no managed instruction in any sector.
The rest of the lane
Other care sectors we can source property for
Your Questions
Questions we get asked
Not covered here? Tell us the specification and we will answer for your situation.
Is demand in this sector growing?
No, and we will not pretend otherwise. The overseas care-worker route is closed to new applicants and the sector is contracting. Residual demand is from existing sponsored workers already in the UK rather than from new arrivals.
Does any care regulator inspect the house?
No. Nobody living there receives care, so no care regulator comes near the building. HMO licensing from the council is the only licensing regime in play.
Would this be an HMO?
Almost certainly. Three or more unrelated adults sharing triggers HMO status, and five or more in two or more households triggers mandatory licensing.
Who is the tenant?
The care provider as employer, taking the property commercially to house its staff. There is no care contract underneath the letting.