tenants handbook

Section Three: Managing Your Tenancy

MANAGING YOUR TENANCY

YOUR TENANCY AGREEMENT

The Tenancy Agreement signed by you and us is a legal document. It sets out the terms and conditions of your tenancy and the rights and responsibilities of you and New Charter.

Your Tenancy Agreement is an important document. It tells you:

The full name and address of your landlord
The type of tenancy you have and the date the tenancy starts
How much rent and any other charges you must pay
Your rights and responsibilities
Your landlord's rights and responsibilities

Please refer to your own copy of your Tenancy Agreement for further details. If there is anything you don't understand then please contact your Neighbourhood Management Officer.

 

NEW CHARTER HOMES OFFERS 3 TYPES OF TENANCY

When you signed your Tenancy Agreement, the type of tenancy you were given would have been either:

1) An Assured Shorthold Tenancy (Starter Tenancy), or
2) A Shorthold Tenancy, or
3) An Assured Tenancy

 

Assured Shorthold Tenancies (Starter Tenancies)

Most new tenants are given an Assured Shorthold tenancy for a trial period to show that they can keep to a tenancy agreement, look after their home and not be a nuisance to neighbours.

This trial period is called a Starter Tenancy and can last for 12 or 24 months. If there are no problems during your Starter Tenancy and/or New Charter do not require possession then at the end of the trial period your tenancy will automatically be converted into an Assured Tenancy.
Assured Shorthold Tenants (Starter Tenants) do not have the same legal rights as Assured Tenants and can be evicted more quickly and easily if they break the Tenancy Agreement.

You do not have the legal right to take in lodgers, sub-let part of the property, make improvements, exchange your home with another tenant or transfer to another landlord.

Most tenants will pass smoothly from their Starter Tenancy to an Assured Tenancy. However, action will be taken quickly against you if you break the terms and conditions of your Tenancy Agreement, for example:

You fail to pay your weekly rent or
You, and/or people who live with you and/or your visitors cause nuisance or
annoyance to anyone in the locality of your home.

We will always investigate first to see if things can be sorted out - but if the problem is serious, or if you do not co-operate with our efforts to find a solution, legal action will be taken to evict you.

If we take legal action against you, we must serve you with a Notice ending your Assured Shorthold Tenancy (Starter Tenancy). If you receive a Notice, it means New Charter intends to get an order for possession from the Court and you will lose your home. You should contact us to discuss the situation, especially if there is anything you don't understand.

You may want to take your own independent advice from a Citizens Advice Bureau, Law Centre, Solicitor or Housing Advice Centre.

You may be able to ask New Charter for a review of our decision to evict you. If this is the case, we will tell you in the covering letter attached to the Notice. Please be advised that this is not a legal right of review; it is something we operate as part of our policies and procedures.

 

Shorthold Tenancies
Some tenants who live in particular types of accommodation are given a Shorthold Tenancy. This type of tenancy is very similar to an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (Starter Tenancy).

The only difference is that a Shorthold Tenancy is not for a trial period. It remains this type of tenancy and does not convert to an Assured Tenancy at any time.

Assured Tenancies
If you are an Assured Tenant then you have more legal rights than an Assured Shorthold Tenant (Starter Tenant) or a Shorthold Tenant. Your copy of your Tenancy Agreement contains more information about these rights.

Also you have greater security of tenure as long as you occupy the property as your only or principal home. We can only end an Assured Tenancy by obtaining a court order for possession of the property on one of the grounds listed in Schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1988.

 

YOUR RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES AS A TENANT

Some of the more important rights and responsibilities you have as a tenant are:

The Property
Your Tenancy Agreement will tell you whether you are allowed to keep a pet and how many people are allowed to live in your home.

It will tell you when you must pay your rent and other charges

You must:
Live in the property as your only or principal home
Not use the property to run a business
Abide by the conditions regarding keeping pets
Look after the property, any gardens or common parts and not allow damage to
be caused
Report repairs and damage to the property
Not do anything to the property without our consent. You do have the right to
carry out improvements to your home, but you must get our written permission
first which will not be refused without good reason
Not use or allow the property to be used for illegal purposes

Community Responsibilities
New Charter believes in developing and maintaining communities. In your Tenancy Agreement there is a section headed "Community
Responsibilities". It tells you what your responsibilities are in respect of harassment, nuisance and anti-social behaviour. Some of the most important points are:

You are responsible for the behaviour of people who live with you and/or visit you.
This responsibility covers behaviour in your home, and also in the locality
You or they must not engage in conduct which causes to others, nuisance,
annoyance, harassment, alarm or distress
You or they must not cause a nuisance by noise; for example, from electrical
equipment or motor vehicles
You or they must not cause damage to the property or in the locality
You or they must not threaten or use violence against another person
You or they must not commit an indictable offence in the property or locality

Any breaches of these conditions are taken very seriously and may result in legal sanctions against you, including the loss of your home.

 

Succession
If you die, it is possible, under certain circumstances, for a member of your family to take over the tenancy and become the new tenant, with all the rights and obligations you had as a tenant.

If the person left in the property does not have automatic right to take over the tenancy, we will consider the person's circumstances and might offer them a tenancy in another home more suited to their needs.

Access to Information
Under the Data Protection Act, you have the right to see certain information which we hold about you. You must make a written request and pay any fee required.

If you disagree with any of the information, you have the right to correct it or record your disagreement.

THANCS! - SOMETHING EXTRA FROM US

We really value good customers, so we have a reward scheme – thancs! from New Charter. This exclusive reward is only available to our loyal customers. And you can apply when you satisfactorily complete your trial period as a Starter Tenant.

We have many customers who pay their rent on time, behave in a neighbourly way and follow the spirit of their tenancy agreement. The thancs! scheme recognises that loyalty.

Our quarterly newsletter "New Charter News" carries details of rewards on offer. Qualifying customers receive a gold thancs! Card. We want many other customers, existing and new, to join. We hold names and addresses in our special thancs! listing; and automatically enter tenants into the exclusive thancs! prize draws. Some thancs! cardholders will find their supermarket shopping a lot cheaper every 3 months!

There are free gifts and giveaways', and there'll also be several benefits which will improve your neighbourhood. We want to recognise community spirit, and help good tenants to make living in New Charter homes more rewarding.

To become a thancs! cardholder

You must apply to New Charter. You must be a tenant of a New Charter home.
You must have a clear rent account.
You must not have breached your tenancy conditions:
i.e. behaviour which has caused annoyance or nuisance to your neighbours;
damage to New Charter property; threatening behaviour towards New Charter
staff; actual bodily harm to New Charter staff; failure to keep your home and
garden in an acceptable manner.
New tenants must have satisfactorily completed their trial period as a Starter Tenant.
Tenants who are employees of New Charter are ineligible for individual benefits
and prizes.

You can get further information from your Neighbourhood Management Officer or by emailing us at thancs@newcharter.co.uk

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Further information, and/or help and advice in case of difficulty in using the
system, including problems, can be obtained by sending an email to the following
address. Please give as much information as possible.


Email: contact@newcharter.co.uk