Home/Care providers/Rough Sleeper Accommodation
Care-sector property
Property for rough sleeper accommodation.
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 the LANDLORD is the party that has to be registered — with the Regulator of Social Housing, not with CQC. Maine Property Solutions is not registered with it, and that fact decides our role here before anything else does.
Who buys it
Who buys it — Rough Sleeper Accommodation
A central government department sets the programme; Homes England delivers it outside London and the Greater London Authority inside. But the party a property owner actually deals with is the council, which is the accountable body on the ground and has a named departmental adviser who gates the approach.
Who is registered, and who is not
Who is registered, and who is not — Rough Sleeper Accommodation
Here the registration requirement sits on the landlord, and the body is the Regulator of Social Housing rather than a care regulator. An owner who does not hold that registration is pointed toward partnering with an organisation that does — so an unregistered owner supplies the building to somebody registered, and nothing more. Outside local authorities that registration is voluntary, which means it is a choice an organisation has deliberately made, not a status a landlord picks up by letting a house.
How it is paid for
How it is paid for — Rough Sleeper Accommodation
Capital grant funds the asset, with the ongoing rent constrained by the Rent Standard. A capped rent against a grant-funded asset is a very specific commercial shape and it should be modelled as such.
What the property has to be
What the property has to be — Rough Sleeper Accommodation
What gets priority is self-contained accommodation spread out and gathered into small groups rather than concentrated on one site. Sharing is tolerated, but only with en-suite facilities and an operating history behind it. The Decent Homes Standard and the nationally described space standard sit underneath all of it as a hard floor, not an aspiration.
What the lease looks like
What the lease looks like — Rough Sleeper Accommodation
There is a lease-and-repair route with a five-year minimum, and longer terms score better. The building itself has to pass a test of structural longevity, and the restriction on who the property may house travels with it through every subsequent re-let — a long shadow on the asset that a landlord has to understand before signing.
What the building has to carry
What the building has to carry — Rough Sleeper Accommodation
HMO compliance must be evidenced at bid stage with the council's HMO team involved, on top of the ordinary landlord duties. Evidence at bid stage means the paperwork has to exist before the opportunity, not after it.
Honest limits
What is not possible here
Here it is the landlord that must be registered
Under this programme the registration requirement sits on the landlord, with the Regulator of Social Housing rather than with CQC. Maine Property Solutions is not registered with the Regulator of Social Housing. An owner in that position is pointed toward partnering with an organisation that holds the registration, and supplying the building to it is the only role we could honestly occupy here.
We can never be the exempt-accommodation provider
Exempt accommodation — the housing benefit category that carries this part of the market — must be provided by a county council, a housing association, a registered charity or a voluntary organisation. Maine Property Solutions is a private limited company and is none of those, so we can never hold that status. What we can do is let a building TO an organisation that does. Anyone implying otherwise, including us, would be wrong.
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.
Who has to be registered in this sector?
The landlord — with the Regulator of Social Housing. That is the reverse of every other sector on this site, where registration follows the care provider. Maine Property Solutions is not registered with the Regulator of Social Housing.
So what could you actually do here?
An owner without that registration is pointed toward partnering with an organisation that holds one. We can source and prepare property for such an organisation to take. We cannot be the registered landlord, and we will not imply that we are.
What is the minimum lease term?
The lease-and-repair route carries a five-year minimum and longer terms score better. The building also has to pass a test of structural longevity.
Does the restriction end when the lease does?
No. The restriction on who the property may house travels with it through every subsequent re-let. That is a long-term encumbrance on the asset and it should be treated as one.