– Landlord from Hackney
Renting your property to a refugee family is one of the most significant ways in which you can help a family start a new life here in the UK.
Here at Reset, we can support landlords to rent to refugees through two schemes: Community Sponsorship and Homes for Ukraine.
We spoke to Jo, a landlord in London, who rented her property to a refugee family through Community Sponsorship.
Here she tells us why she would encourage other landlords to do the same and answers some of your key questions:
When my property in London became available, I knew that I wanted to find a way to let it to a refugee family. And I can say now that this was the best decision I could have made. It’s been such a simple way to make a transformational difference to the life of a refugee family.
Letting your property to refugees really is a win-win – you get your regular rental payments and a refugee family gets a home. On top of this, the community is enriched by the refugee family’s presence. You benefit, the family benefits, and the community benefits. I can’t recommend it enough.
There are two main ways that you can rent your home to newly arrived refugees. You can offer your property to a Community Sponsorship group or you can offer it to your council (if they are participating in a resettlement scheme). Either way, you’ll be providing a home to vulnerable refugees. The only difference is that refugees resettled through Community Sponsorship receive their main support from local people rather than the Local Authority. To find out how to rent your home to refugees through Community Sponsorship, get in touch with Reset.
As a landlord, I know that you probably have lots of questions that you need answered before you’ll feel confident about letting your property to newly-arrived refugees. In this blog, I’ve answered some of the biggest questions that I had when I first began to consider letting my property to refugees.
“Letting your property to refugees really is a win-win – you get your regular rental payments and a refugee family gets a home.”
When I first suggested to my husband that we rent our property to a refugee family, he thought I was giving it away and we wouldn’t get any money. I assured him that refugees are entitled to apply for Universal Credit and so we would get our regular rental payments. We haven’t had any difficulties in securing rental payments. It’s even possible to receive payments directly from the Government!
The amount of Universal Credit that a household can receive for housing costs is calculated using the Local Housing Allowance. You can check online what the Local Housing Allowance will be for your property. This will probably be less than the market rate so you may make less money than you have been, but you’ll also get the privilege of knowing that you’re making a real difference to the lives of people who had lost everything. Plus you won’t need to go through an agency so you’ll save the agency fees (often around 10% of monthly rent).
All of the refugee families resettled in the UK have had their refugee status determined by the UN’s Refugee Agency, UNHCR. In fact, the UK only resettles those refugees that the UN considers to be most vulnerable. You can read more about how refugees are selected for resettlement here.
You may be asked to make some changes to your property because you’ll be renting to vulnerable tenants. For example, we had to install two fire doors and upgrade the fire detectors.
But this wasn’t a problem as we discovered that we were able to cover all of this (and more!) using an incentive payment offered to us by the council. I’d definitely recommend finding out what incentive payments could be available to you in your Local Authority area if you decide to offer your property to refugees. In some cases, additional funding is available to make changes to a property for those with mobility needs and to improve accessibility.
I’ve found that when people actually meet each other, any bitterness just disappears. It’s much easier to hold a negative opinion about people you’ve never met than about your neighbours. In my experience, the community have been really supportive.
You can feel confident that there won’t be any major issues because the police will be consulted on whether your property is in a suitable location for a refugee family. If they have significant concerns about how the community will react, then they will not approve your property.
If you rent your property to refugees through the Community Sponsorship scheme, there will be a whole group of local people dedicated to supporting the refugees living in your property.
They will support the family to apply for benefits, learn English, manage their finances and get to know the local area.
To rent your property to refugees through Community Sponsorship, register as a potential landlord. A member of Reset’s staff team will get in touch to talk to you about your options. If you want to chat to Reset before renting your property, they are more than happy to talk to anyone who is considering providing their property to refugee tenants. Just get in touch!
Letting my property to refugees has been a simple way to make a massive difference to the life of a family that has lost everything. You can make a difference too.
Read all news and insight from our initiatives
See coverage of Reset UK in the press and media
Find out how Community Sponsorship helps refugee families in need build a new life in the UK with confidence and dignity.
How do I sponsor a refugee family? How does the process work? Reset is here to support you every step of the way.
We’ve designed toolkits to make it easy for you if you’re involved as a lead sponsor or a local authority.
Wherever you are on the fulfilling and thrilling journey through Community Sponsorship, we have training courses, videos, articles and more, all designed to help your group and the family you support.
From drop-in sessions to UK-wide networking events, we bring together people and professionals involved in all stages of the Community Sponsorship journey.
Make a direct difference in the world by getting involved with your nearest Community Sponsorship group – or starting one up yourself!
Make an extraordinary difference to the lives of people who have lost everything by signing up to our (free) Landlords for Refugees register.
Not everyone can donate their time, so if you are choosing to donate money today instead or as well as, thank you. Your generosity is vital to the work we do support community-led welcome of refugees.
Help others by sharing your account. Why were you attracted to community-led welcome? What worked, what did you learn, what has the experience been like for you?
Reset empowers volunteers to welcome refugees into communities across the UK. Find out about us and the kinds of programmes we’ve been involved with.
Research, monitoring and evaluation are essential for making evidence-based decisions that will support Community Sponsorship to grow and flourish.
Sponsoring a refugee family is a significant responsibility. We advocate for Community Sponsors to ensure that they are properly supported throughout their journey.
Our advocacy focuses on representing the views of Community Sponsors to the Home Office to support them in implementing the necessary operational changes.
We also represent the views of Community Sponsors to other key stakeholders, including Local Authorities, international organisations, the wider resettlement field, housing providers and financial institutions. We also use our voice to campaign on policies affecting refugees. We are members of the Together With Refugees coalition, campaigning for a more humane approach to people seeking protection in the UK.
