Northwood Guaranteed Rent Scheme

When you rent your property through our Northwood guaranteed rent scheme, City Borough Housing becomes your tenant. We pay your rent on the same day each month by standing order for an agreed period, usually between three and seven years. Even if the property is untenanted or the tenant is not paying their rent, we will still continue to make your rental payments.

Once you’ve entrusted your property to our care, we will rent it out through our network of local authorities and registered housing providers. We’ll take care of everything, including everyday tenant queries, maintenance and repairs, and property management. Quarterly property inspections are also included, giving us the opportunity to keep track of how well your tenants are taking care of your property during the tenancy.

When our Northwood guaranteed rent agreement concludes, we’ll return your property to you in the same condition it was in at the start, allowing for fair wear and tear.

All our Northwood landlords are paid a fair rental value based on the property type and size, and where it is situated within Northwood.

Whilst this may not be full market rent, the fact that our Northwood guaranteed rent scheme comes with free professional management and covers the costs of day-to-day maintenance and repairs, quarterly property inspections and returning the property in pre-let condition at the end of the agreement, makes it top value.

We accept properties from private residential landlords and developers. The most common types of properties we take on tend to be 1-4 bedroomed, self-contained homes, but we do have requests for other types of properties occasionally.

Once your rental valuation has been issued, we’ll inspect your property to identify whether there’s anything that needs bringing up to scratch in terms of safety and regulatory standards. We’ll also ask for a number of compliance documents, for example an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC), a Landlord Gas Safety Record (LGSR), and an Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR). Other documents may also be needed. If they are, we’ll let you know.

Once the inspection process is finalised and we have all we need in terms of safety and compliance, we can then proceed to agree terms and get the Northwood guaranteed rent agreement signed. This can take as little as 48 hours.

For the duration of our rent guarantee agreement, we will manage all the day-to-day repairs that are reported by the tenants or spotted during our quarterly property inspections.

Things like tripped electrics, leaks, broken locks and general maintenance will all be covered. We don’t manage the likes of outdoor repairs, however, so anything to do with roofing, fencing or exterior walls, for example, will remain your responsibility.