Local council is offering to lease my flats?

I did on a 3 year contract via South London Family Housing Association. . Be prepared to have to gut the property afterwards! I had to gut back to the brickwork, new floors, kitchen, bathroom, new doors the lot. The cooker wasn't used much as many of the temporary sub-tenants preferred to cook over a burner on the lounge carpet!
Needless to say the deposit didn't cover the works and it cost me more than the rent earned and the auto deduction for supposed management.
Better to sell the properties to the council?

Reply to the comment left by Judith Wordsworth at 24/09/2021 - 13:43
The lease offered, gives me the flat back in the same condition as at the start ( at council expense) less fair wear and tear, plus they offer me £300 / Yr for 'helping the homelessness '

Over the years, I've rented out properties to Councils and Housing Associations to house homeless people. I always got the property back in the condition it was given less FWT, or received a dilapidation allowance. Check that the contract offered places the onus to rectify any damage on the Council and not you.

There was a similar question posted here last April which might help. Search for "Let your property to the Council for Emergency Accommodation?"

Expect massive wear and tear, and damage, to occur, so ensure that your lease agreement is watertight and covers you for those situations (plus of course anti-social behaviour and all other issues that could occur).

Check with your mortgage lender as to whether they will allow you to lease to the council for this purpose.

Check with your insurance company as to whether they will cover the property under this lease arrangement, and how much extra they will charge you for the insurance policy.

Ensure that this lease arrangement, and use as emergency accommodation for homeless people, is authorised by the freeholder of the flats.

You may also wish to consider including a liability waiver so that you cannot be held legally liable for any tenancy management issues, as in effect this is simply a Rent 2 Rent agreement and you certainly don't want to be held liable if the council tenants cause a nuisance or fail to put their bins out or anything else that an owner landlord could be held liable for. Although the Council perhaps cannot absolve you from all liability, they can perhaps absolve you from any enforcement action that they have within their control (which is a very large amount of legislation/regulations). - You would need professional legal advice for ensuring such terms are added and are legally valid.

My stepdaughter signed up for one of these contracts with the council but vowed never to di again. The cost of damage to her flat exceeded the 5 weeks deposit amount and the council would not cough up anymore even though her contract stated it would return her property in the same condition. Also, the council were useless at management so she still had to get things sorted herself.

Thanks guys, loving all the positive comments !! NOT
Wouldn't it be great though if we could actually work sensibly with our local councils, sadly this doesn't seem to be the case and after having my local council manage one of my flats (badly), plus the comments above, I think I'm going to be heading towards letting supermarket !!
Sorry council, but you'll just have to buy your own houses!

There are scores of posts across the various forms from landlords who have done this and a common theme is that the Council don't live up to the promises made at the start, either in the support of the more vulnerable tenants, the return of the property at the end of the contract or the property condition. Most of the ones I've read say that promises about returning it in the same condition are worthless.

As I've said before - I can see the day coming when it will be mandatory to accommodate the homeless if a property is vacant over a certain length of time - mark my words!

I've worked in complaint department of local council and we did get a few complaints from landlords re the condition of property after its returned to them. Flooring ripped apart, doors broken into in drunken brawl, mould everywhere etc. In theory the council officers should inspect regularly but they dont and if you make a complaint, they might apologise and then do nothing. If you manage do go through council and ombudsmans 3 month complaint procedure, you might get a £50 or £100 compensation for your distress. It's not all bad though, if you manage to get continuous rent for 3 years or so, it might be worth it.