The property
Fit to live in, built to last
We take on residential property of the right shape for the people who will live there — houses, bungalows and flats — and bring them up to the standard supported accommodation demands. That means durable finishes, sensible layouts, decent shared space, and rooms that feel like rooms rather than allocations.
Furnishings, white goods and communal equipment are provided and replaced as they wear. Gardens and grounds are maintained. The building is inspected regularly, not only when something breaks.
What a Brunel home has
- A private, lockable room for every tenant
- Furnished communal kitchen, lounge and bathrooms
- A room retained for the care provider's use
- Garden or outside space
- Utilities, broadband and TV licence covered by the service charge
Compliance
Every duty, evidenced and in date.
Compliance is the part of this job that cannot be improvised. We hold the certificates, we diarise the renewals, and we can produce the paperwork for any property on request.
| Duty | What it covers | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| Gas safety | Certificated inspection of appliances and flues | Annual |
| Electrical (EICR) | Fixed wiring inspection and remedial works | Every 5 years |
| Fire risk assessment | Detection, escape routes, doors, extinguishers | Reviewed annually |
| HMO licence | Room sizes, amenities, management standards | Per licence term |
| Legionella | Water system risk assessment and controls | Reviewed periodically |
| Property inspection | Condition, repairs, standards of the home | Routine |
Tenancies and rent
Tenants, with rights.
The tenancy
Each resident is granted an assured tenancy for their own room, with the right to use the shared parts of the house. They are tenants — with the rights that carries — not occupants of a placement.
Tenancy agreements are issued in plain English, explained before signing, and held by us as landlord.
Rent and service charges
Rent is set at a level agreed with the placing local authority and settled through the appropriate housing route. Service charges cover utilities, broadband, TV licence, communal cleaning materials and building and garden maintenance.
Charges are stated in the tenancy agreement, and any change is notified in writing in advance.
Want the documentation?
Every home we hold carries a current gas safety record, electrical installation certificate, fire risk assessment and legionella assessment. Ask and we will send them.
What the charges cover
Every resident pays a rent and a service charge. We set both out in writing, in a rent and charges appendix that forms part of the tenancy, so nobody is guessing what they are paying for. There are no hidden fees and no charge is payable to a care provider — everything is payable to Brunel.
- The room
- Let to the resident in their own name
- Shared parts
- Lounge, dining room, kitchen, bathrooms, garden
- Repairs
- Structure, exterior, heating, water, electrics
- Compliance
- Gas, electrical, fire, legionella, HMO licence
- Furnishings
- Furniture, white goods, fixtures and fittings
- Energy
- Gas and electricity for the whole house
- Water
- Metered supply
- Communications
- Broadband, telephone, TV licence, Sky
- Cleaning
- Contract cleaner for communal areas, and materials
- Grounds
- Garden and grounds maintenance
The service charge recovers what the house actually costs to run — it is not a margin. It is reviewed annually against the invoices, it varies with the size of the house, and it is set out line by line for every resident. Council Tax is dealt with separately and, in a shared house, is divided between the residents rather than charged in full to each of them.
Tenancies that hold up
The Renters’ Rights Act 2025 abolished assured shorthold tenancies in England on 1 May 2026. Every tenancy we grant is an assured tenancy, periodic, with no fixed term and no end date. Residents stay as long as they want to, and we can only seek possession on a statutory ground, through the courts.
We rewrote our agreements for the new regime rather than relabelling the old ones. That matters for a commissioner: an agreement still calling itself an AST in 2026 is describing a tenancy that no longer exists.
We also write our tenancies for the people who actually live in them. A stay in hospital does not put the tenancy at risk. Most agreements are breached by an absence of more than 28 days — which for someone admitted under the Mental Health Act is not a choice. Ours carves that out expressly, for hospital and for custody. The room stays theirs, and we work with the support provider to protect the housing benefit claim while they are away.
- Type
- Assured tenancy, periodic — Housing Act 1988 as amended by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025
- Term
- Rolling. No fixed end date
- Held by
- The resident, in their own name
- Ending it
- Two months’ notice from the resident; statutory grounds and a court order for us
- Hospital
- Absence for hospital or custody does not breach the tenancy
- Rent changes
- Only by Section 13 notice
- Pets
- Requests considered under Section 16A; not unreasonably refused
- Adaptations
- Disability adaptations considered under the Equality Act 2010