EasyLet celebrates two years of turning empty houses into homes

Plymouth City Council's EasyLet scheme is celebrating two highly successful years of finding homes for people by bringing empty properties back into use.

Since the rental management service was launched in December 2010, 52 landlords have signed up and 62 households have been settled into new homes.

The scheme was set up to help bring the city's vacant homes back into use and help those in housing need gain access to good quality, rental accommodation in the private sector.

It offers a fast tenant finder service, matching private landlords with suitable tenants. Landlords benefit from competitive market rents linked to the local housing allowance and a full property and tenancy management service.

Cabinet member for Co-operatives and Community Development, Councillor Chris Penberthy said: "I'm delighted that this scheme is doing so well and contributing to our successes in bringing empty homes back into use for people who need a roof over their heads. Working with private landlords to increase the number of rentals on the market is one of our priorities and I'd urge anyone with an empty property to get in touch to find out how we can help them and how they can earn money from the property."

Michaela Smart and her partner Chris Morley moved into a flat in Ford with their baby Sophia. Michaela said: "The house we were in before was only suitable for a single person and so we needed to find somewhere that would have us and our new born baby. We had been bidding on Devon Home Choice for over eight months but we weren't getting anywhere. We attended a housing advice meeting at the Civic Centre, the officer was very friendly and told us about the EasyLet scheme, showing us a range of properties currently available. Three days later we were invited to view the property we were most interested in. The management agents were very helpful when they showed us around the property. It looked fantastic and I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. We moved in within the week and we were so happy to have found such a beautiful home for us and Sophia just in time for Christmas. We hope to spend many more Christmases here for years to come."

Jayne Porter who is an EasyLet landlady added: "The EasyLet Team was so professional and dealt with everything. Now we have a lovely family in our property who are extremely happy, the property is managed well and we have a steady rental coming in monthly with no hassle. Our future is very bright with EasyLet , in fact so bright we are currently in the process of purchasing another property and without a shadow of doubt we will be letting this one with the team too."

The Council offers a range of packages with help and support for empty homes owners so they can bring their property back to use including an empty property lease and repair scheme and interest free empty property loans to help owners put their properties to use. There is also an empty property sale procedure in place that offers owners a 'no cost' alternative to selling via an estate agent which has recently been used for a property in Keyham.

Emma Durrant-Fellows was given an interest free loan to help bring her property up to a lettings standard. She said: "I found the EasyLet scheme, just that, easy. The service from everyone at the office has always been prompt and efficient, and the team is informative and easily accessible.

"Moving away from the area, I feel confident in handing my property over to EasyLet. The interest free loan was particularly beneficial at a time when we had a lot of financial pressure and this option helped us immensely and also enabled us to do a couple of extra things around the house that we would have liked to have done for tenants but perhaps would not have been able to afford otherwise. It's a fantastic scheme and I'm so glad we found out about it.”

Plymouth currently has 845 homes that have been empty for more than six months, this figure is being skewed by the large scale regeneration programmes currently underway in the city.

The Housing Delivery team is always working to contact owners of long term empty properties to ensure records are up to date and to keep them informed of their options. For each property brought back to use, Plymouth receives £8,800 in New Homes Bonus over a six year period. A recent project resulted in the city securing £580,000 over the next six years.

Anyone who has an empty property and would like advice can call the team on 307577 or 307778.