Tenancy matters
Your rights and responsibilities
Your right to a written tenancy agreement
Before you move into your home you’ll sign a tenancy agreement. This is the contract between you and us, telling you:
• That you have the right to live in your home until a given date, providing it’s your only or your main home;
• Your rights and responsibilities;
• Our rights and responsibilities;
• Your rent and any other charges that you must pay and how these will be reviewed;
• Our full name and address;
• That we are registered with the Tenant Services Authority (TSA), who regulate us;
• That you have a shorthold tenancy.
Once you’ve signed your tenancy agreement, any changes to it can only be made with your agreement. This doesn’t apply to changes to your rent and service charges, which can be made following an agreed period of notice from us.
Your right to stay in your home
You have the right to stay in your home for the duration of your tenancy agreement, as long as you keep to the conditions. Your tenancy will normally last at least six months. If you stop using your home as your only or main home, you’ll no longer be a shorthold tenant and we have the right to apply to a court to evict you.
We can only take possession of your home under certain circumstances. The reasons are defined in the Housing Acts of 1988 and 1996. These are the circumstances in which we might seek possession of your home:
• We intend to demolish, rebuild or improve your home, or part of your home, and we can’t do this unless you move out. In this case, we would offer you suitable alternative accommodation;
• You’ve not paid your rent or service charges or you’ve persistently delayed payment of your rent or service charges;
• You’ve broken or failed to fulfil any of the conditions of your tenancy;
• You have, or a person living with you or visiting you has, behaved in a way causing or likely to cause serious or persistent nuisance or annoyance to other people;
• You have, or a person living with you or visiting you has, been convicted of using the property, or allowing it to be used for immoral or illegal purposes, or of an arrestable offence committed in or in the locality of your home;
• You have, or anyone living with you has, caused damage to, or failed to look after, your home, or the communal parts of the building in which you live;
• You have, or anyone living with you has, ill-treated and furniture provided by us;
• A tenant has died leaving other members of the family in occupation and the property is then underoccupied. In this case, we would offer you suitable alternative accommodation;
• We need your home for someone who requires its special amenities or services and you don’t. In this case,we would offer you suitable alternative accommodation;
• The tenant has died and the person claiming to succeed to the tenancy is not entitled to succession and there is no other qualifying successor;
• When you applied for the tenancy, you or someone acting on your behalf, knowingly made a false statement;
• Where there are joint tenants living as a married couple, or a couple living together as husband and wife, and one partner leaves because of violence or threats of violence by the other towards them or a member of the family, and the court is satisfied that the partner who has left is not likely to return;
• Your home was let as a service tenancy, and you are no longer in that employment;
• When we’ve served two months’ notice, provided the tenancy runs for at least six months altogether.
We want to help you stay in your home, and will only apply for an eviction order as a last resort when there is no reasonable alternative.
Your right to live peacefully in your home
You have the right to live peacefully and quietly in your home. We have a leaflet setting out our procedures for dealing with neighbour nuisance and anti-social behaviour.
Your right to be treated fairly
We recognise that certain groups and individuals are discriminated against within society. We believe such discrimination is wrong. We aim to ensure that no person or group of people receiving our services, or applying for accommodation, will be treated less favourably than any other person or group of people because of their gender, sexual orientation, marital status, race, colour, ethnic or national origin, nationality, religion, political beliefs, disability, age, class, unrelated criminal offences or any other condition not justified in law or relevant to our work.
Rents and service charges
In general, our rents are lower than those charged in the private sector in your local area. We’ll not increase your rent more than once a year, unless by mutual agreement. You’ll receive at least four weeks’ notice before we make any changes to your rent.
Your right to know about your service charge
You may pay a service charge in addition to your rent. These service charges are to cover the cost of services such as communal heating, cleaning, grounds maintenance and caretaking. We’ll give you at least four weeks’ notice before we change your service charge.
You are entitled to have the following information from us:
• A summary of our policies for setting rents and service charges;
• A summary of service charge costs for the last year;
• The standard of service you can expect.
Advice on alternative accommodation
When your shorthold tenancy comes to an end, provided that you’ve not broken your tenancy conditions, we can give you advice and information to help you to find somewhere else to live.
Repairs and maintenance
We’ll keep your home in good order and ensure that it is safe and fit to live in. We’ll maintain the structure of the building and keep the plumbing, heating and electrical systems in proper working order. Please refer to your tenancy agreement for details on what repairs we are responsible for and those you must do.
Improvements
We have a programme for improving our properties. These improvements cover things such as new roofs, installation of double glazing and external re-decoration. If we intend to improve your home, we’ll ask for your views.
Your right to be consulted
You’ll be consulted if we are considering any of the following:
• Changes in the management and maintenance of your home, such as the contracting out of these services;
• Improvements or major repairs to your home or near to your home;
• Demolishing your home;
• Transferring your tenancy to another landlord.
We’ll also consult you in a reasonable way about the services that you receive and the standards of those services.
Opportunities to get involved and influence services
You have the right to be involved in our work and have some influence over the services you receive. We involve you by:
• Consulting you and your representatives about major changes to policies, procedures and service delivery;
• Encouraging and helping the development of residents’ organisations and working with them;
• Involving tenants in the design of new homes.
Your right to complain to us
If you have a complaint about the way you’ve been treated, or about the service that you have received, you should let us know.
Schedule 1, Part I of the Housing Act 1996
We can’t offer tenancies to people who are related to our staff or Board members without advance notice. If this applies in your case, you must tell us. If you don’t tell us, and you enter into your tenancy agreement in breach of the provisions of Schedule 1 Part 1 of the Housing Act 1996, your rights under the tenancy agreement may be at risk.
|