WMC rates

[thesmac]

Good morning

I attended a training event a couple of years ago in Sheffield and was surprised to see that WMC were much higher than what we were asking from our residents.

How much do you charge, weekly, for

a) 1 bedroom flat, single occupancy, including water and heating.

b) as above but for a couple. Would you charge more?

c) 1 bedroom flat, single occupancy, where the residents pay their own bills.

Many thanks

Anne

[clerk.sandbachAH@gmail.com]

Hello Anne

We are in Cheshire and charge £84 per week for a 1 bedroom flat (either single or as a couple) where residents pay their own bills. We think this is very reasonable and is around £50 per week cheaper than council accommodation. However, we used to pay the water bills and stopped at the end of March so the trustees felt they couldn’t increase the WMC too much for 25/26 to take that into account. They will be raising the WMC by the maximum suggested by the AA though next year.

[Tina LL]

Hiya,

We charge £139.87 to £150 per week including service charges for a one bed flat or bungalow ; and 153.99 for a two bed flat including service charges. This is all covered by housing benefit.. Prices vary because we increase the wmc to the target wmc (fair rent valuation) when properties are vacant. Otherwise as a registered provider wmcs increase annually is based on consumer price index plus 1%.. I note that non regsitered providers might only increase prices to the local housing allowance.

[Tina Collins]

I’d recommend watching the webinar by William Clemeny, as it totally changed how we charge for the WMC. We also obtained Fair Rent Evaluations and have now moved our WMC to the Local Authority housing benefit rate, which will make a massive difference moving forward.

[Sarah Massey]

We also charge the same as/close to local housing allowance rate which is what the Almshouse Association always advised though this does get tricky when LHA gets frozen.
Overall we ensure that income from MMCs covers our overheads and allows for something to be set aside in reserves

[thesmac]

Thank you everyone!

[Buckleberry]

I think TAA recommends a slightly higher WMC for couples because of increased wear and tear for 2 people. If the residents are paying their own bills then they will both pay for as much as they use.

[Author]

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