ReHouse UK launches
Friday January 20, 2012
An exciting new website that matches landlords with home seekers in Hammersmith & Fulham has launched.
www.rehouseuk.com (opens new window) is a property rental and management website that allows residents who would otherwise have relied on the council for assistance to access their own private rented accommodation.
Since 2003 Hammersmith & Fulham Council have been helping families threatened with homelessness obtain private rented accommodation. This can be time consuming and frustrating for residents who given the opportunity would rather help themselves.
Under the old arrangements, the council searched for available housing and prospective tenants could only find out what was available through maintaining active contact with their housing caseworker, based at 145 King Street.
From now, landlords will advertise their property directly via the website and residents will be able to register themselves and make contact with the landlords directly. This will streamline many aspects of the process, reducing costs to local taxpayers at the same time as speeding up and improving the service to both landlords and home seekers.
Re-House UK will also be working alongside the council to attract new landlords and increase the number of properties available.
Cllr Andrew Johnson, Cabinet Member for housing, said: "We know how frustrating and time-consuming finding accommodation can be for home seekers. Re-House UK will speed up that process. It will help landlords advertise and let their properties with the minimum of fuss and at the same time give our residents a simple way of finding a home. This council has a strong track record when it comes to improving services while cutting down on costs and Re-House UK is more proof that is possible to achieve more for less by taking a more efficient approach to the way that we work."
Neil Cobbold of Re-House UK, said: “Re-House UK are excited to bring this exclusive website, for low income homeseekers, to Hammersmith & Fulham. It’s important to us that homeseekers find good quality homes with landlords and agents in the area and across London. We are pleased that working in partnership with Hammersmith & Fulham Council to help resident whilst reducing council spending.”
The landlord and tenant will be able to use the website for tenancy management; all key documents such as the tenancy agreement and gas safety certificates will be stored electronically on the Re-House UK website.
The council will continue to play a role in assisting prospective tenants to register on the website and in advising them how to make best use of it.
This service is free for home seekers, landlords and estate agents. The council will be writing to all landlords to encourage them to use the website.
On www.rehouseuk.com (opens new window), landlords or agents should quote “hammersmith12” to receive their upgrade to the Gold advertising package. The number of properties listed on the site is likely to grow and grow as more landlords become aware of its existence.
As Re-House UK already works in other areas of West London and the home-counties, homeseekers will be able to find a home beyond Hammersmith & Fulham.
