Your Tenancy

The vast majority of our tenants are secure tenants. This is the standard tenancy granted to council tenants. A secure tenancy gives you very many rights as well as responsibilities.

Some of the more important rights you have as a secure tenant are that:

• You can live in your home for the rest of your life as long as you abide by your tenancy agreement
• You can buy your home at a discount
• You will be able to pass on your home to a spouse or civil partner when you die as long as they were living with you at the time and no previous succession has taken place
• You may be able to pass on your home to someone else in your family who had been living with you for over a year when you die
• You can take in lodgers, and you can sub-let part of your home with our permission
• You can get certain urgent repairs done quickly and at no cost to you
• You can carry out improvements to your home with our permission
• You might be entitled to compensation for certain improvements you have made if you move home
• You can help to manage the estate where you live
• You can exchange your property for another one with our permission
• You must be consulted on housing management matters
• You must be given information about how we manage the homes we own

As a secure tenant you have a number of responsibilities regarding how you use your home:

• You must pay the rent and other charges weekly
• You must give four weeks’ notice in writing to end the tenancy
• You should personally live in the home and not run a business from it without seeking and obtaining our permission first
• Involvement in any act of nuisance, vandalism, anti-social behaviour or harassment/hate crime is considered a tenancy breach if it occurs in or around the home and elsewhere on the estate
• You should seek our advice before keeping any domestic pets: there are restrictions applicable to different types of housing. Guide dogs are permitted in all our homes
• If you own a car or have visitors who do you must ensure it doesn’t cause an obstruction and is not parked on any grassed area. If there is space to park in front of your house you must have a properly constructed pavement crossover and hardstanding. You should get permission before parking any trailer or caravan
• You must take good care of your home. You must keep any gardens tidy, the inside of your home clean and in a good state of decoration
• You must report emergency repairs immediately, such as blocked drains, water leaks and problems with the gas or electricity supply. If you report such a problem outside office hours an emergency service will come out and make safe to allow a repair the following working day or after, depending on the urgency

If you are involved in any serious breach of your tenancy agreement, you may have your tenancy status demoted.

Further information regarding the rights and responsibilities of a secure tenant can be found in the leaflet “A guide to your tenancy”.