1. home and garden

TENANT SUPPORT
Once a tenant moves in, a Seascape Support
Worker will meet them on a regular basis to offer
help with budgeting, banking, assistance with minor
repairs, contact with the landlord, resettlement
activities and other issues that crop up. Our aim is
to help the tenancy run as smoothly as possible.
Scottish Charity No:
SC028570
Company No:
242218
South Ayrshire Escape
From Homelessness Ltd.
(SeAscape)
8 Barns Street
Ayr
KA7 1XA
RENT and HOUSING BENEFIT
LHA (Local Housing Allowance) is the equivalent of
Housing Benefit for the private rental sector.
Rates are set according to the number of bedrooms, rather than the size, condition or value of
the property. LHA payments are usually made directly to the tenant every four weeks on fixed
dates. It is therefore up to the landlord to set up
a payment routine whereby the tenant either pays
the landlord by cheque, direct debit or in cash.
The landlord must provide the tenant with receipts for any cash received.
SeAscape recognises that there is the potential
for rent arrears to arise if the tenant does not
forward the LHA payments to the landlord on
time. Many tenants do not have the budgeting
skills to separate their rent from their day-to-day
spending. We now have an agreement with a Credit
Union that allows us to manage LHA payments on
the tenant’s behalf and ensures that the landlord
receives the rent accordingly. This takes the burden away from the tenant and gives the landlord
peace of mind. Please refer to our accompanying
leaflet for more information.
How to contact us
Ask for Rick Bamford — Landlord
Liaison Officer
Telephone: 01292 290035
Email: rick.bamford@seascapeayr.co.uk
Visit : www.seascape-ayr.co.uk
How we can assist
with your
next tenancy
.
TENANT SOURCING
SeAscape have up to 100 clients at any
one time actively seeking property. As
soon as you register a property with us
we let our clients know by...
SMS
We find that 99% of our
clients have mobiles. This
enables us to send instant
text messages to our database of clients with details
of your property!
TENANT SELECTION
PROPERTY VIEWINGS
BEFORE MOVING IN
We can put clients directly in contact with you
via our SMS service to arrange viewings. We
cannot carry out viewings on your behalf but we
can, if necessary, arrange block viewings for you
provided you give us a time and a date that you
will be at the property. Of course, you are not
obliged to accept any of our clients for the tenancy and you may refer non-SeAscape viewers
to us for a guarantee if they do not have their
own deposit (provided they meet SeAscape’s
criteria).
We will not knowingly place a client in your
property if we think they cannot afford to live
there. Before we put our deposit guarantee in
place for a SeAscape client for your property
we will assess the client’s affordability.
NOTIFYING SEASCAPE
Our clients can access our
current list of properties
via our website from home
or the local library. We
update this list every day.
INTERNET
www.seascape-ayr.co.uk
PERSONAL TOUCH
Of course, we also phone
our clients regularly to
touch base and they are
also encouraged to pop in to
our office regularly to
check our property list and
have a chat.
TENANT PLACEMENT
If you accept a SeAscape client for your property you must give us at least 1 week’s notice.
This is so that we have adequate time to assess
the client’s current circumstances as these may
have changed since they first registered with
us. We will then make an appointment for the
client to come to our offices to complete the
necessary paperwork to put
our deposit guarantee in
place. We will also need to
1 week!
inspect your property.
In most cases the client will be applying for
Housing Benefit (see overleaf for details).
ON THE DAY
On the date of entry we ask our client to bring
us signed copies of the lease and AT5 you have
provided them. We then complete the SeAscape
paperwork and Housing Benefit forms with the
client at our offices. We then ask the client to
submit their application to the Housing Benefit
office in Ayr and return the Housing Benefit
receipt to us immediately
afterwards. Once we have a
copy of this receipt we will call
to advise you that our deposit
guarantee is in place so that you
may hand the keys over to your
new tenant.
PLEASE NOTE: Our guarantee will not be in
place until we have a copy of the client’s
Housing Benefit receipt (also, the Housing
Benefit office is closed on Wednesdays!)