Living in Your Home
This page covers the most common things you may need to know about if you have a tenancy with us, such as:
For more advice on any of these subjects, please contact us.
Decorating and furnishing
You are responsible for decorating and furnishing your home and keeping it in a good condition. If you have moved into a brand new property, please do not decorate for the first 12 months. It is common for timber and plaster to shrink in this time and cracks can then appear on the walls. We carry out a 12-month inspection and you can then decorate with your own choice of décor.
If you receive Income Support, you may be able to get a grant or loan to cover some of the costs of furnishings. If you need any advice about this, please contact us.
Insuring your possessions
You are responsible for insuring the contents of your home. We strongly advise that you take out contents insurance to cover your possessions and valuables. Most contents insurance will cover you against costs that you are liable for as a tenant - for example if you cause damage to the property, or to our fixtures and fittings or if the internal decoration is damaged.
A number of insurers have economically priced contents insurance policies for tenants. If you would like more advice on insurance, please contact us.
Pets
Tenants must ask permission to keep a pet. We will not withhold this permission unreasonably, but we will consider if it is likely to cause any issues for neighbours or for the condition of the property. This may particularly apply if you live in a block of flats, or flats with access to furnished communal areas.
If you own a pet, it is your responsibility to make sure that it does not foul in the common areas or grounds. It is also your responsibility to make sure that it does not cause any deterioration or damage to the property, the communal areas or in the vicinity of the property. If you have a dog, try not to let them become a nuisance by being noisy, especially early in the morning or late at night.
There are laws to control dog nuisance and we can insist that you find a new home for your pet if it is not kept under control.
Car parking
At the time of signing your tenancy agreement, you will be advised about the car parking arrangements. Generally, if you occupy a ground-floor property designed for wheelchair users, you will have a dedicated car space. For all other properties, there is communal car parking and we ask that you use the spaces considerately. You must not park caravans, trailers or lorries in communal areas without asking for our permission first.
Tenants should not carry out extensive vehicle repairs or servicing either at their home or in the communal areas.
Rubbish disposal
Most of our schemes have "wheelie bins". Please put your rubbish in the appropriate bin and keep the communal area free from litter.
Rubbish collection is the responsibility of your local council. They can advise you about collection days and recycling arrangements for your area.
Large, bulky items may be disposed of by contacting your local council. A charge may be payable for uplifting these items.
Gardens
We are responsible for the upkeep of communal gardens and usually employ a grounds maintenance contractor to do this. We set standards for the contractor. Tenants pay a service charge for the maintenance and we work with tenants to review the standards from time to time, or if there is a problem.
Some tenant groups have taken collective responsibility for the maintenance of the communal grounds around their development. We can work with tenant groups to support them with us.
If your property has a private garden, you are responsible for its maintenance. If you are unable to manage this, we may be able to arrange for the work to be carried out for you and any costs will be charged to you.
Running a business from home
Your home must only be used as a private residence. However, we may grant permission for certain business activities to be carried out from your home, providing these do not cause nuisance or require planning permission for change in the use of premises.
Improving your estate
We have started a programme of working with tenants to improve our developments. Your housing and/or technical officer will:
- invite you to join him or her on annual, or more frequent, estate walkabouts
- work with tenants and tenant groups to improve the estate
- check the appearance of the area and make sure that grounds maintenance and other communal areas are being maintained to a satisfactory standard
If you notice any damage on your estate, or experience issues such as graffiti, dumped rubbish or abandoned cars, please contact us to report it.
You can download the Around and About Your Home chapter of our Tenant Handbook: Section 6: Around and About Your Home.
