My tenancy

Starting a new tenancy with us

To make your tenancy a happy one, it's important to understand your tenancy agreement. We’re here to help if you ever need support to understand it or to manage your tenancy. Watch this short video to find out what to expect...

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Why do I need a tenancy agreement ?

You’ll need to sign a tenancy agreement when you become one of our tenants. It's a legal contract setting out your legal rights and responsibilities as well as ours.

We'll give you a copy of your agreement when you move in. You should keep it in a safe place and contact us if you have any questions.

We’ll try to help you to keep to your tenancy conditions and we'll always tell you if you break them. However, if the problem continues we may be forced to take legal action to end your tenancy.

How can I make changes to my tenancy agreement?

It's very important for you to update your information. You'll need to let us know if you change your name, if the people you live with changes, if a member of your household dies or if you want to end your tenancy.

Click the tabs below to find out more about your agreement.

Understanding what your responsibilities are will help you to keep to your tenancy conditions.

You must:

Pay your rent on time - If you have any problems call us on 0345 60 20 540 immediately as we may be able to help
Live in your property and use it as your home
Treat your property and garden in a reasonable way and keep it in good condition. This includes maintaining the garden and any trees, shrubs or hedges within it. You're responsible for maintaining fencing unless it divides your home from a public path/right of way.
Be a good neighbour. Don't do anything that will disturb or annoy those living near you. Please be considerate to your neighbours and remember not to fit hardwood flooring if you live in a flat.
Make sure the people you live with and your visitors don't do anything to disturb or annoy your neighbours
Report any repairs that we're responsible for quickly and allow access for the work to be completed
If your property is heated by gas, you must let us do a gas safety check every year

It’s just as important for you to know what our responsibilities are.

We must:

Set your rent which is reasonable and offers good value for money
Offer an effective repairs service
Keep your home and any shared part of the building in a reasonable state of repair
Give you the chance to have your say in the way we deliver our service
Respect your privacy and the information held about you
Investigate and respond to complaints

You can download our Tenancy Policy if you’d like more information about the type of tenancy you have and if/how it might change.

You’ll also be able to find out about all of the different types of tenancies we have available.

If you’re looking to move into one of our homes you might be wondering how we allocate our homes. Our Allocations Policy explains how we let our homes in a fair and clear way.

A tenancy breach means that your behaviour, or the behaviour of your visitors, goes against the conditions of your tenancy. This can result in your tenancy being ended by us.

Things considered a breach of tenancy could be:

Making changes or adaptations to the internal or external area of your property without written permission
Making structural alterations without permission
Installing a hard-wired camera without permission
Allowing people into the block or communal areas who are not your visitors
Damaging or dirtying the communal areas
Keeping item(s) in the property that are a health and safety risk
Having lodgers without permission
Running a business from your property without permission
Smoking in the internal communal areas
Carrying out any illegal activity in or around the property
Not maintaining the property
Dog fouling in communal areas

There are many types of tenancy fraud including:

Providing false information in order to move into one of our homes
Not using our property as your main home or abandoning it
Subletting your home to someone else
Selling your keys
Not telling us when someone has passed away, so that someone else can live there
Vulnerable tenants being targeted by fraudsters to use the home for criminal activity
Giving false information to get a Right to Buy or Right to Acquire discount

Tenancy fraud is illegal and unfair as it means that there are less homes for people who need them. It’s important that we tackle tenancy fraud so that people in genuine housing need are able to get a home with us.

Any suspicions of fraud are taken very seriously. We’ll work with internal teams and other agencies to investigate further.

How do we prevent tenancy fraud?

To prevent fraud we’ll

Request proof of identity and residency for all household members when we offer a home. We may ask for proof during appointments or home visits
Visit customers after they have moved in

What actions do we take to stop tenancy fraud?

If we believe tenancy fraud has taken place we’ll

Take legal action to end the tenancy
Share information with partners to support criminal prosecutions
Recover any money gained illegally
Cancel any fraudulent applications for housing and stop the person from making future applications for a period of time
Offer support and advice to customers who have been victims of tenancy fraud

How can I help prevent tenancy fraud?

Contact us straight away if you have.

Noticed an unusual change of residents at a nearby home
Seen any unusual activity
Overheard any mention of the property being sublet
Noticed that a nearby home appears to be empty

To find out more view our tenancy fraud factsheet. You can also request a copy of our housing counter fraud policy.

My responsibilities