We were instructed on a rental search for a client with a recent spinal cord injury.
At the initial meeting, a record-breaking search area was set that covered the majority of the South East Coast of England including Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Kent, Hampshire and East and West Sussex.
The client was in the hospital awaiting suitable accommodation to come home to, and their main requirement was for a property with lots of outdoor space and nearby to the coast to enable them to begin their rehabilitation.
the solution
Whilst this size of search area, is not something we would normally recommend, with the clients strict budgets and high clinical requirements, this allowed a greater degree of flexibility to secure a property.
A number of properties were viewed, but discounted due to the level of adaptations required to make suitable. As is common in searches of this nature, there tends to be a scale between adaptation costs and rental price. With properties at the lower end of the scale requiring significantly greater adaptation works and vice versa.
To enable us to effectively manage this, the clients budget for the rental value and adaptations were treated as a total cost, to ensure that the strict finances were adhered to.
Because of the need for the client to be released from hospital, an aspire property was sourced which enabled their release. This move increased the urgency to find a longer-term rental that would provide the client with a greater degree of security.
A property came to our attention that had a ground floor wetroom already in place and a viewing was secured the following day. The property was a four bedroom house with multiple reception rooms, and it was envisaged to repurpose a reception room for ground floor sleeping accommodation for the client. With the first-floor bedroom to be utilised by the client’s extensive care team and visiting family.
Following our viewings, a client site with images and a walk through video was issued to the client, for them to review the property and a subsequent second viewing was arranged with the client, family and case manager. It was agreed that the property ticked all the boxes for the search and an offer was placed on the property, which was accepted.
A further hurdle we needed to overcome was the availability of the property, the current tenant was not due to be vacate for 2 months. However, through negotiations with the agents and landlord, we were able to bring this forward and arranged for an early start date to the tenancy.
Minimal adaptations were required to the property, namely the installation of ramped access to the front and rear, modifications to the wet-room shower head and the partitioning of a corridor with a door to create a wing for the client on the ground floor. We worked with a local contractor to oversee these works to completion and the client moved in once finalised.