Home/Care providers/Substance Misuse Recovery Housing
Care-sector property
Property for substance misuse recovery housing.
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.
Recovery housing is where the CQC boundary is genuinely subtle. Whether registration bites turns on the occupancy agreement rather than on the building — and getting that wrong is an offence, not a technicality.
Who buys it
Who buys it — Substance Misuse Recovery Housing
Treatment and recovery for drugs and alcohol is bought by upper tier and unitary councils. That is a public health budget rather than an adult social care one, which means a different set of officers and a different cycle.
Who is registered, and who is not
Who is registered, and who is not — Substance Misuse Recovery Housing
Registration is engaged only where accepting treatment has been made a condition of living there. Where it has not — where the housing is housing and the treatment is chosen separately — no registration arises. That distinction is drawn by the terms of the agreement, not by the layout of the house. Non-registered recovery housing claiming housing benefit would fall inside the proposed supported housing licensing regime rather than outside it, so the unregistered route is not an unregulated one.
How it is paid for
How it is paid for — Substance Misuse Recovery Housing
A named housing support grant sits inside the consolidated treatment grant from the health department, alongside the housing benefit route for eligible rent. Two revenue streams, differently controlled.
What the property has to be
What the property has to be — Substance Misuse Recovery Housing
Shared houses are common in this sector, which means HMO status is the norm rather than the exception. Location relative to treatment services and to a recovery community matters more here than square footage.
What the lease looks like
What the lease looks like — Substance Misuse Recovery Housing
Providers in this sector are frequently small charities and community organisations, so the covenant behind a lease is a real question and the terms tend to be shorter than in learning disability supported living.
What the building has to carry
What the building has to carry — Substance Misuse Recovery Housing
Housing here must meet building-related and environmental statutory requirements including fire and health and safety, and the landlord must comply with the HMO management duties and licence the property where that is required. Those are stated as landlord obligations, not provider ones.
Honest limits
What is not possible 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.
Does CQC register recovery housing?
Only where accepting treatment has been made a condition of living there. Where housing and treatment are genuinely separate, no CQC registration arises. The distinction is made by the occupancy agreement, and it is worth taking advice on rather than assuming.
Is unregistered recovery housing unregulated?
No. Non-registered recovery housing claiming housing benefit would fall inside the proposed supported housing licensing regime rather than outside it, and HMO rules apply regardless.
Would we need an HMO licence?
Very possibly. Shared houses are the norm in this sector and the HMO management duties apply whether or not a licence is required. Being exempt accommodation does not exempt a building from HMO licensing — the two uses of the word are unrelated.
Do you provide the recovery support?
No. We do not provide care, support or supervision. That is the provider's, under its own arrangements.