Home/Care providers/Temporary Accommodation
Care-sector property
Property for temporary 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.
Temporary accommodation is the one sector in this lane where the council itself is usually the counterparty, and where the direction of travel in the specification is unusually clear: away from shared facilities and toward self-contained units.
Who buys it
Who buys it — Temporary Accommodation
The council's housing authority, holding the interim and main accommodation duties. That is a single, identifiable buyer with a statutory obligation it cannot decline, which is a different commercial position from selling into a discretionary budget.
Who is registered, and who is not
Who is registered, and who is not — Temporary Accommodation
There is no operator registration regime here. No care regulator is engaged, because no care is being provided. The standards apply to the accommodation itself and are enforced by the council through housing law — which puts the whole regulatory weight on the building and on the landlord's ordinary duties.
How it is paid for
How it is paid for — Temporary Accommodation
The council pays, through nightly paid arrangements or through a leasing scheme. Because the duty is statutory the money is not discretionary, but it is also under acute pressure, which is what drives the move away from expensive nightly paid stock.
What the property has to be
What the property has to be — Temporary Accommodation
Self-contained nightly paid accommodation is now the dominant form and bed and breakfast use is falling sharply. The disfavoured category is defined by shared toilet, washing or cooking facilities between households — so a unit with its own bathroom and kitchen sits on the right side of the line. There is also a statutory pull toward accommodation inside the authority's own district, which makes local stock worth more than distant stock.
What the lease looks like
What the lease looks like — Temporary Accommodation
Private sector leasing schemes are the structure worth understanding: the council takes a lease, manages the occupier and absorbs the voids. For a landlord that is a fundamentally different risk profile from a nightly paid arrangement, and the two should never be discussed as if they were the same product.
What the building has to carry
What the building has to carry — Temporary Accommodation
The floor is a property carrying no Category 1 hazard at all. A gas safety record has to be current, and furnishings have to satisfy the fire safety regulations. Where facilities are shared between households the building is an HMO and the HMO regime applies on top.
Honest limits
What is not possible here
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.
Do you have a contract with any council?
No. We hold no framework, no contract and no place on any supplier list, and we would not describe ourselves as being on one. We are looking for our first placement in this sector.
What is the difference between nightly paid and a leasing scheme?
Under a leasing scheme the council takes a lease of the property, manages the household and carries the void risk. Nightly paid is closer to a per-night booking, with the risk sitting differently. They are different products with different risk on the landlord, and they should be priced differently.
Does a property need to be self-contained?
Not always, but the direction is clear. Shared toilet, washing or cooking facilities between households define the category councils are moving away from, and self-contained units sit on the right side of that line.
Would you manage the household?
No. We do not provide care, support or supervision. Under a leasing scheme it is normally the council that manages the occupier.