Housing Aid Bond Scheme

If you live in the Nottingham city area and are homeless or threatened with homelessness, you may qualify for some help to get you into private rented accommodation.

All referrals are made through Nottingham City Council's Housing Aid office. If you think you may become, or already are, homeless, this is your first port of call.

The team at the office will interview to see if you are suitable for the scheme. You will be asked about where you prefer to live and staff will try to match them.

Who can qualify?

• Families
• Single people
• Couples

The main thing is that you will need to satisfy the Housing Aid staff that you will be able to keep your tenancy and make sure you pay your rent and other necessary payments on time.

How does it work?

• If you receive housing benefit, Housing Aid will pay for four weeks' rent in advance which will then be reclaimed from your first month's benefit when you get it.
• If you are working, you will need to make this payment yourself.

Housing Aid then issues a Guarantee Bond for the relevant amount to the private landlord instead of a cash deposit. This is then used in the same way as a deposit and can be claimed against if you run up rent arrears, or damage is caused to the property.

The bond will not be for more than the market rent and Housing Aid will also check the rent is less than the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) amount. (You can get more information on Local Housing Allowance from the Department of Works and Pensions website). The bond will not be for more than the LHA amount. If you are working and the rent is above the LHA amount, if you can demonstrate you can afford the extra amount to Housing Aid, the tenancy can go ahead.

All properties will be checked as acceptable to Housing Aid. If you rely on housing benefit to pay your rent, you will be helped with this at the sign up of the private tenancy. You will need to provide all necessary proofs to get your housing benefit paid otherwise the sign up can't go ahead. Your landlord will also need to sign the paperwork.

Housing Aid will help you with ongoing support if you need it and the bond can be renewed in the future.

Find out more in the Housing Aid video below.