Your rights are explained in the Charter for Housing Association Applicants and Residents. The charter is issued by the Housing Corporation and sets out your legal rights and what you can expect from your landlord. It also tells you what you can do if you think we are not keeping to the Charter.
This Charter does not apply to you if you own your home outright. However, you have the same legal rights as a shared owner.
Right to occupy your home
You have the right to stay in your home as long as you keep to the conditions set out in your lease agreement. If you break them, we may apply to the court to forfeit your lease and repossess your home. The types of situation where we may seek possession are:
. Non-payment of rent
. Where you, or people living with you or visiting you, cause nuisance or harassment to other people
. Where you home is used for illegal or immoral purposes
Our aim is to help you stay in your home and we will only take steps to repossess your home where there is no reasonable alternative.
Right to pass on your home
If you die your lease or your interest in your lease, if you are a joint leaseholder, will pass to whoever you nominate in your will. If you die without leaving a will, your lease will pass to your nearest family member.
If your will is challenged, the courts will decide who succeeds to your lease.
See the section 'Selling your home' for what to do if you want to sell your share of your home.
Right to take in lodgers and sub-tenants.
If you are a shared owner, your lease does not allow you to sublet or give a sub tenant total control of your home. However, in certain exceptional circumstances, we may allow you to sublet. You must explain your situation to us and show good reasons for wishing to sublet.
You must:
. Notify us in writing of your intention to sublet
. Have our written approval before you sublet your home
. Be up to date with your rent and service charge payments and be making payment to us by standing order
. As security, three months rent in advance may be required
. Let your property through a reputable lettings agency or estate agency assured shorthold
. Grant an assured shorthold tenancy for no more than 12 months and give us a copy of the agreement We'll review the situation after 6 months.
. Get written approval from your mortgage lender to sublet and send us a copy of the approval
. Provide us with your contact address and notify us if you move.
Right to be consulted
You have a legal right to be consulted if we want to change your lease. If we plan major building work that affects your home or significantly affects your service charge, we must also consult you before we start the work.
The Housing Corporation also expects us to consult you if we;
. Plan changes to the way we manage your home
. Propose to change the way we protect service charge contributions
. Propose to sell the freehold of your home.
We use various methods of consultation.
. We may visit you at home
. We may write to you
. We may put an article in the residents' newsletter
. We may call a residents' meeting
. We may speak to the Residents' Association
Whatever method of consultation we use, we will give you time to respond and we will consider your comments. We will then let you know what we plan to do.
Right to information
The Housing Corporation sets out a list of information all residents are entitled to know in the Charter for applicants and residents.
If you pay a service charge, you have a number of important legal rights, including:
. A right to be notified in advance of any changes to your service charge
. A right to challenge your service charge at a Leasehold Valuation Tribunal
. A right to see a summary of the service charge costs for the previous financial year and to inspect the accounts and invoices on which the summary is based
. A right to a summary of the insurance policy for your building
. A right to be consulted about work which is likely to cost you more than £250 inclusive of VAT
. A right to be charged, or notified of service charge costs, within 18 months of the cost being incurred
. A right to be consulted where a service contract of more than 12 months (for example for gardening) will cost more than £100 per annum for each Leaseholder, and the contract is for more than one year
You will find more detailed information in the Landlord and Tenant Acts 1985 and 1987 and Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, which should be available at your local library.
You can also contact LEASE (Leasehold Advisory Service) www.lease-advice.org.uk
