Pay to Stay is here!

Local authorities in England must await further regulations that will “make provision about the levels of rent that they must charge a high income tenant of social housing”.

For private registered providers however, to introduce Pay to Stay, (“rents for high income social tenants”), they must publish a policy.  The policy must include details of how tenants are to request reviews and appeal decisions.

Section 90 confirms that HMRC must share certain information with private registered providers to enable them to implement their policy.  That information will inevitably be historic however, so in our view landlords need to give some thought to how they can persuade tenants to provide income information voluntarily.

For landlords contemplating introducing Pay to Stay, the first practical thing to do is to check tenancy agreements to confirm they can increase the rents to a market rent.

Contact us if you would like assistance with:

• Amending or replacing your current Rent Review Policy to incorporate the Pay to Stay;
• Introducing a new Pay-to-Stay Policy;
• How to practically deal with rent increases;
• How to approach getting tenants to provide financial information voluntarily.

Please contact Zishaan Saleem or Jonathan Cox. Additionally, you can read our earlier ebriefing on pay to stay.

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