Responsibilities
Responsibilities
As a good landlord, our first priority is to offer straightforward trusted services that allow our customers to live in their homes comfortably.
Our customer promise sets out our commitment to our customers.
Repairs
To find out more about which parts of your home are our responsibility and yours visit the repair and maintenance responsibilities page.
You are expected to:
- Pay your rent on time
- Keep your home and any garden areas clean and neat
- Allow our staff and contractors access to your home when needed to carry out repairs, heating servicing and other works
- Make sure no one in your household or your visitors acts in an antisocial way or causes a nuisance to your neighbours
- Not use threatening, violent or abusive behaviour towards our staff or our contractors
- Not transfer or sub-let your home to someone else without our permission
- Let us know immediately if you are planning to allow someone to live in your home as a lodger
If you keep to the terms of your tenancy we will not end your tenancy early.
Repairs and maintenance
To find out more about which parts of your home are our responsibility and yours visit the Repair and maintenance responsibilities page.
Usually you will have one of the following types of tenancy with us:
- Fixed-term tenancy
- Assured lifetime tenancy
- Assured short-hold tenancy
Your tenancy agreement will say what type of tenancy you have but if you’d like to know more, please read a summary of your tenancy rights [PDF].
If you need further information about your tenancy agreement please contact us.
The demand for social housing is greater than ever, but we’re also seeing more fraud in social housing. This means that sometimes much needed homes aren’t going to those that need them.
What is tenancy fraud?
Often it includes:
- Obtaining housing by deception. Where someone obtains a tenancy by giving false information in their application. Examples include using false documents, not declaring official income or that they already have a social tenancy or giving false information about household members.
- Non-occupation. This is where a tenant doesn’t use the property as their main home or abandons it
- Unauthorised transfer of tenancy. This can include those who swap homes illegally (without the permission of the landlord and without the legally completing the mutual exchange process)
- Tenancy succession by deception. Where a tenant dies and someone who is not eligible to inherit (succeed) the tenancy stays living in the property
- Unlawful subletting. Where the tenant rents their property to someone else without the knowledge or permission of their landlord
- Key selling. Where a tenant is given a one-off payment to pass on their keys
- Providing misleading information when buying. When a person gives misleading information about their identity or personal circumstances when applying to buy their home through Right to Acquire
Our approach
- We work in partnership with other agencies to investigate, prevent and deter tenancy fraud
- We take a preventative approach by limiting the possibility of fraud occurring at tenancy sign-up
- We work with partner agencies to gather intelligence and ensure that criminal prosecutions are bought forward where appropriate i.e. for benefit fraud
- We take formal, legal action including possession (evicting the tenant) when other measures have failed
If you suspect tenancy fraud is taking place, please contact us. Any reports received of suspected tenancy fraud would be confidential and when we address this we would not disclose where the report has come from.