Types of tenancy

There are a number of tenancies available, each giving you different rights and responsibilities. These include:

Introductory:

All new tenants are given an ‘introductory’ tenancy, which lasts 12 months, like a trial tenancy. The main points of this type of tenancy are:

• It gives you most of the same rights as a secure tenancy, but you can be evicted more easily.
• As long as you don’t break your tenancy agreement during the first 12 months, you will automatically become a secure tenant, unless we have issued proceedings to end your tenancy.
• We reserve the right to extend the trial period in certain circumstances.

There are limits to what you can do while you are an introductory tenant, for example:

• Carry out improvements to your home
• Swap your home with another tenant

During your Introductory Tenancy period, if you break conditions in your tenancy agreement we can end the tenancy by giving you notice, without proving reasons to a court. For more information, click here.

Secure:

After the first 12-month introductory tenancy agreement, most of our tenants automatically become a secure tenant. The main differences are:

• You will have extra legal rights than an introductory tenancy and can:
  • Take in a lodger but aren’t able to sub-met the whole property
  • Swap your home with another property or housing association tenant
  • Apply to transfer (assign) your tenancy to someone else in similar circumstances
  • Make improvements to your home with our permission
• You must continue to behave responsibility and keep to the conditions of your tenancy agreement
• For more information about types of tenancy, have a look at your tenancy agreement

Sole & Joint:

Our tenancies can be either a sole of joint tenancy with someone else and are offered at our discretion. Once a tenancy has been agreed, we cannot easily add or remove names upon request, unlike other Housing Associations. If you want to add someone to your tenancy, you will need to apply to us. For more information, click here. 

Sole:
Whoever’s name is on the tenancy agreement, then you are solely responsible for your tenancy agreement with us.

Joint tenancy:
This means both of you would have the same rights and responsibilities. We normally offer this type of tenancy for established couples, but applications between other family members is considered. However, we would not normally offer a joint tenancy to a parent and child.