Your Responsibilities

Your responsibilities as a tenant will include:

Paying your rent

You must pay your rent and any other associated charges on time. Your rent is payable weekly in advance every Monday. There are more details about your rent and how you can pay it in the page on rent payments.

Looking after your home

It is your responsibility to take good care of your home and to prevent anyone else from damaging it. We will charge you for any deliberate damage or vandalism carried out to your property. You must keep the inside and outside of your home clean and tidy. See the pages on Repairs, Alterations and Maintenance for more details.

Using your home

We have let the property for you and your family to live in and you should use it only for that purpose. You do not have the right to run a business from your home but we may consider granting you permission. You must ask our permission before you set up your business and we will consider the request. An example of when we might refuse is where the business could disturb your neighbours or be unlawful.

Nuisance and harassment

Everyone has a right to peacefully enjoy thier home. Therefore, you must not cause a nuisance or annoyance, or any kind of deliberate harassment, to the people living around you. You are also responsible for the behaviour of people who live with you or are visiting you. See the Anti Social Behaviour page for more details.

Access to your home

We will sometimes have to carry out repairs and servicing in your home and will need access to do this work. In these circumstances you must allow the workmen into your home. In most cases, unless it is an emergency, you will have been notified in advance of our need to access your home. Authorised officers must also be allowed to enter and inspect the condition of your property at reasonable pre-arranged times. Any person who calls at your home on our behalf will carry official identification, which you should ask to see. See the Repairs page for more information about what repairs you and the Commissioners are responsible for.

Looking after shared areas

If you live in a block where there are shared areas, we expect you and the other tenants to keep these areas clean and tidy. For your own safety, please make sure that you keep shared areas free from rubbish and obstructions.

Car parking

You and your family must park your car or any other vehicle in a proper parking area or a drive if available. Remember, most spaces are not allocated to specific properties and you may need to come to an agreement with your neighbours concerning parking. Please do not park untaxed or unlicensed vehicles, large commercial vehicles, caravans, boats or trailers in parking spaces. These may be removed if causing an obstruction and the owners charged.

When you sign a tenancy agreement, you immediately have legal rights and responsibilities.

Do new tenants have the same rights as established tenants?

No, during the first 12 months you do not have the right to:

  • Exchange homes with any other tenant, or
  • Take in lodgers.

What will you do if I do not keep to my tenancy agreement?

If you break the terms and conditions of your tenancy we will contact you and tell you what you need to do to put things right. If you continue to break your tenancy conditions we may take legal action. This can lead to:

Getting an injunction, which is a court order requiring you to stick to the terms of your tenancy. This is used mainly against tenants who cause unreasonable annoyance to others in the neighbourhood, such as by causing excessive noise, abuse, threats, violence, racial intimidation or harassment etc.

Ending Your Tenancy

You can end your tenancy by giving written notice of one week to the Commissioners and then giving the keys back.

We cannot end your tenancy unless:

  • You break one or more conditions of your tenancy;
  • We need your home for another reason, for example, clearance for redevelopment; or
  • We get a court order for possession.

All tenants are closely monitored during the first year of their tenancy during which we will make sure that new tenants act responsibly and follow the conditions of the tenancy agreement.

During this period, housing officers may visit you to make sure that there are no problems. If there are, they will take action to sort them out quickly.

If we seek to take your tenancy away, we will:

  • Warn you in writing that we plan to take legal action against you and serve you with a Notice to Quit.
  • Apply to court for a Possession Order. If the court grants the order we can then seek a warrant for your eviction. This would mean that you would have to leave your home and would not be allowed back.

We will always give you every chance to put things right to avoid court action.