SFHA and Shelter revisit good practice guide on flexibilities on rent in advance

Some vulnerable households experiencing homelessness face financial barriers to accessing a settled and secure home. One barrier in particular that has been highlighted by some support agencies, such as Shelter Scotland, was the ability to pay a month’s rent in advance to commence the tenancy.

Asking for rent in advance is part of a normal tenancy agreement, and reinforces the transactional relationship between landlord and tenant from the start. However, most landlords agreed that they are able to have a degree of flexibility to ‘rent in advance’ if it poses a real barrier to taking up a tenancy.  

To capture and share the good practice across the sector, last year, SFHA and Shelter Scotland worked together to publish a good practice guide for social landlords in relation to flexibilities on rent in advance. We wanted to do this to be sure that good practice and challenges around this could be shared. Now that it has been in place for over six months, we thought it would be good to revisit the guidance and see if it has helped SFHA members.

Aoife Deery, Shelter Scotland Policy Officer, will be at the Housing Management Conference on 20 June to talk about feedback from Shelter advice advisers and to explore how SFHA members have used the guide.

Other topics at this year’s SFHA Housing Management Conference include Homelessness – in particular evidence of what works in terms of intervention and the experience of the Prevention Duty that is in place in Wales.  

The conference takes place on 20 and 21 June 2018 at 200 SVS in Glasgow. 

Find out more and book your place at the SFHA Housing Management Conference 2018