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  1. Home
  2. How we work
  3. Your own home

Your own home

You’ll find and keep the right home
100%

of fire, electrical, gas, asbestos, water and lift safety checks were up to date in 2024

95%

of emergency repairs were done on time in 2024

86%

of tenants were satisfied or very satisfied with Dimensions in 2024

Finding the right home for you

We’ll match you to homes and housemates, exploring many letting options including our own homes.

Dimensions employs specialists in the housing market to give us the best chance of finding the right home for people we currently support or will be supporting.

These specialists support our operational teams. They search, mediate and advise on letting, purchasing, developing and accessing the private housing market and social affordable housing.

I’m already a Dimensions tenant

Getting the specification right

We will understand your local market and we’ll help you to be realistic about what is possible. Bringing our housing specialists in early can help manage expectations on all sides.

We’ll write a clear specification outlining what is really essential and what is desirable.

Our specialists will listen to what you want, and also help you focus on what you need.

For example, if you need sleep-in support, a two-bedroom property is all that would be allowed unless you need an extra room, maybe for your sensory needs or medical equipment.

Getting tenancy-ready

To get the most from our housing specialists, our support teams will help you get tenancy-ready.

This means you must:

Funding

We’ll help you find out if you can claim an exempt rent (above local housing allowance.)

It pays to get this right. Housing Benefit or commissioners may consider the rent to be too high if it is above the local average or if the property is larger than you need.

In exceptional circumstances, ICBs (Integrated Care Boards) may pay a top-up if the exempt rent application fails; our experienced team will be able to give you an idea of the chances of success. You’ll definitely want to get this in writing as the exempt rent decision can take some time.

Beware of using a freelance housing broker who may charge you finder’s fees even if the property proves unsuitable.

Additional costs of private rental

If you’re thinking about renting privately, remember that most agencies ask for:

  • one month’s rent in advance
  • six weeks’ rent as a deposit
  • fees to cover things like administration, arrangement and inventory
  • rent if the property is empty (if it takes time for you to move in, you’ll still need to pay the rent.)
  • rent top-ups if Housing Benefit won’t meet the full cost.

These costs can’t be added to the rent as Housing Benefit won’t pay for them.

You can claim Housing Benefit from the tenancy start date but if there is a delay in you moving in, Housing Benefit will not pay unless you are leaving hospital or residential care. If you are, you may be able to claim up to four weeks’ rent.

If you want to secure a home so as not to lose it on the open market, you’ll need to consider who will pay whilst it is not occupied.

A new home for Kevin

‘Kevin’ is a young man with a diagnosis of autism, severe learning disability and bipolar disorder.

He’d been in hospital as a long term delayed discharge due to a lack of suitable housing.

When designing the service for Kevin alongside the CCG and other healthcare professionals, we agreed on a very prescriptive specification.

Requirements included three bedrooms in a specific and quiet location, proximity to shops, a lockable kitchen, fixed furniture, recessed lighting, minimal door thresholds, a staff bedroom and so on.

Previous approaches had been made to access the housing register.

Initially we had no success working through the LAs housing team, ‘My Safer Home’ or private landlords. We incurred ‘finder’s fee’ costs from external brokers. The exempt rent application went to appeal and the CCG wouldn’t pay the difference between local housing allowance and the market rate. It was a tough, but not uncommon, situation.

A best interests meeting let us look at a wider range of homes and together we found a preference.

We applied for housing benefits for an Exempt Rent and the CCG agreed to pay for property adaptations and rent top-up if the Exempt Rent application failed.

This meant we could sign a let, reducing the chance of losing the property.

Due to the adaptations, we agreed an unusual three-year lease and matched that with Kevin’s tenancy agreement.

Following the adaptations, all informed by our behaviour support team, Kevin successfully moved out of hospital and into his new home.

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