The property, ready to register.

What the company is

A landlord, and nothing else. Prime Orchard Residential is not registered with Ofsted, does not hold exempt accommodation status, and is not a registered provider of social housing. It does not need to be any of those to let you a building, and it does not pretend otherwise.

Two published procurements describe the arrangement directly. Cheshire East states that where a provider is not a registered social landlord, it can partner with a registered provider landlord on a collaborative application. Herefordshire accepts, as an alternative to a provider holding its own properties, evidence of an enforceable agreement with property owners to use suitable accommodation for the full duration of the contract. This is that agreement.

What arrives

A property brought to licensed standard and handed over with the file that proves it.

Licence	Applied for in advance of occupation, with the position evidenced in writing before you take possession
Planning	Planning permission or a certificate of lawful development, obtained and paid for by the company, because Ofsted requires the operator to evidence the planning status
Bedrooms	No bedroom below 6.51 square metres, a lock on every bedroom door openable from inside without a key, and a tested broadband connection in every room
Communal space	A dedicated space to sit, socialise and eat, proportionate to the number sharing, excluded from the letting schedule
Fire	Fire risk assessment by a competent assessor, detection to the assessed grade, fire doors to risk rooms, emergency lighting where the assessment requires it
Furnishing	Furnished throughout to a domestic rather than an institutional standard, including bedding, towels and kitchen equipment at handover
Compliance pack	Gas safety record, electrical installation condition report, energy performance certificate, fire risk assessment, alarm and emergency lighting certificates, licence or application, planning evidence and an insurance schedule endorsed for the use
Condition	A dated photographic schedule of condition agreed at handover, which is what caps the dilapidations argument at the end

Every line of that is a thing done to a building before anyone moves in. None of it is a service to an occupier.

The lease, and why it is shorter than you expect

A lease of the whole property, on a term matched to your own commissioned contract with an option to renew, rather than the ten to twenty year full repairing and insuring lease this market has historically run on.

That is deliberate. The Regulator of Social Housing has warned since 2019 that long, inflation linked, break free leases are what breaks the operator, and reported in April 2025 that the only mitigations left to a distressed provider have been either expecting freeholders to forgo lease payments or handing properties back. The Charity Commission made the same point from the other side in November 2023. A term you cannot carry is not income to us. It is three good years and then a negotiation we lose.

Who does what to the building

The company keeps the structure, the exterior, the roof, the heating system and all statutory compliance, and recharges none of it. You take internal repair, decoration and damage caused by occupiers. Dilapidations are capped against the schedule of condition. There are breaks on de-registration and on a stated arrears threshold.

That is the opposite of the market convention and there are two reasons for it. The first is legal: since 1 May 2026 the unlicensed house in multiple occupation offence reaches a superior landlord, and section 72(4C) of the Housing Act 2004 provides that a term in the lease is not on its own a defence. The company is exposed whatever the paperwork says, so it keeps the work and the evidence. The second is commercial: a provider being offered a full repairing and insuring lease is being offered a liability it has watched competitors fail under.

What the company will not do

• Take a referral, accept a nomination, match an occupier to a room, or have any say in who occupies.
• Provide, arrange, coordinate or supervise any care, support or supervision.
• Help an occupier with a benefit claim.
• Hold itself out as an exempt accommodation provider, a registered provider or an Ofsted registered service.
• Let directly to a 16 or 17 year old in any circumstances.

Each of those, if crossed, changes the company’s legal position rather than merely its workload, which is why they are stated here rather than negotiated later.

What the company is looking for

Three to five bedroom properties, with four at the centre of what the market actually asks for. That is not a guess. Ofsted publishes every registered supported accommodation premises in England with its number of places, and at 31 March 2026 sixty seven per cent of ring fenced shared premises held three to six places, ninety five per cent held six or fewer, and premises of seven or more were 3.7 per cent of the whole national estate.

Location is yours to specify rather than ours to assume. Tell us the authority, the travel time your support model needs, and the number of beds you are contracted for but cannot yet fill.

Tell us what you need