Advice for Renters

Who we are

About us

Advice for Renters (A4R, formerly known as Advice4Renters) was established over 30 years ago as a campaigning organisation, to campaign for better rights for those living in private rented accommodation.  Over the years, we have achieved some major successes.  Our advice service grew up alongside our campaigning work, to help private tenants understand and secure their rights. 

We have a contract with the Legal Aid Agency (“LAA”), to provide specialist housing advice and have had a housing franchise since May 2005.  We have a specialist quality mark.  Although our main focus is on providing advice and assistance to those in the private rented sector, we provide legal services to tenants in all tenures as well as to the homeless.

We believe that safe, secure housing is a fundamental right. This means that the life outcomes and wellbeing of people living in the Private Rented Sector should not be disadvantaged by housing tenure. 

We are driven by our belief that a fairer, well housed society will flourish, and by achieving this we would take a fundamental step towards empowering people to successfully tackle life's challenges as they arise.

To achieve our vision we are tackling housing inequality from many angles, ranging from legal support for vulnerable tenants facing eviction, to lobbying government for the policy change needed to protect tenants in the first place. 

We see the person and their potential first and tackle the problems they bring us in that context.  To assist us to reach our aim to improve the health, wellbeing and resilience of clients, we continue to develop a range of complementary services including financial inclusion, work to tackle fuel poverty and our mentoring and befriending service.

Our new community-led housing programme aims to change the way we talk about, develop and manage housing, by putting the occupiers back in the driving seat. We are in the process of developing a genuinely scalable, sustainable community led housing model - the first of its kind - by addressing the all too common scalability and funding issues which often affect small scale affordable housing developments.

Over the last 30 years we have supported thousands of tenants in acute housing need, and our influence is seen in housing policy changes since the early 90’s. In turn our high standards are driven by on-going review and improvement based on listening and learning from our beneficiaries, and the direct experience of our clients in the private rented sector and our staff who manage their cases. 

In 2018 we started a (“Under one Roof/Health and Wellbeing”) project to enables us to offer those in poverty, including fuel poverty, rounded support including housing advice, money advice and a Mentoring and Befriending Service. This means that, when our legal team have helped people to get their lives back on track, volunteer mentors can provide the support that helps them to stay on track, and be better equipped to tackle any fresh problems that may arise.

Another five-year project we also started 2018, “Green Light Laws”, focuses on testing new areas of law such as the extended scope for Rent Repayment Orders, letting agents in breach of redress scheme requirements and new lets of F or G energy rated homes.

In 2019, we welcomed our “It’s all about Money” project which focuses on financial inclusion services. We have long been proponents of Social Prescribing and have links with health providers to promote an understanding of the wider determinants of health, including housing conditions and debt. We have a small debt/benefits advice team which provides services from venues around Brent.

Advice for Renters aims to be an organisation where people come before profits.  This means that targets are a means to an end, the continuation of our ability to provide a high quality, holistic advice service, and not an end in themselves.  We are an organisation where a good work/life balance is positively encouraged.  

Advice for Renters provides a supportive, friendly and collaborative working environment.