Published: Wednesday 8 March 2023
Your enjoyment of your home is important to us, and when you have suggestions about how we can improve it, we listen. Following feedback, particularly around antisocial behaviour and domestic abuse, we launched an extensive consultation about making changes to the tenancy agreement to help us deal better with these issues.
During this consultation, some residents have expressed concern about the proposals. We recognise that not everyone will support what we are proposing. But it’s also clear that some of these concerns are based on a lack of clarity about what we are actually proposing to change. Therefore we would like to clarify some points around the changes we suggest.
What are the proposals?
These are the four areas of the tenancy agreement where we’re proposing changes, some of which are as a direct result of resident feedback:
- Antisocial behaviour (section 5.15 of the tenancy agreement)
This change updates the definitions of antisocial behaviour that we use in our tenancy conditions as a basis for taking formal action against a tenant whose behaviour is seriously affecting their neighbours. On a couple of occasions, we’ve been able to prove a person is causing a problem but our tenancy agreement wasn’t specific enough to get a result in court. We want a more modern definition that we can use to manage cases in future, it includes bullying of children and committing crime in the area.
- Domestic abuse (section 5.16)
Similar to the antisocial behaviour clause change, this modernises the language we use to describe the offence, ensuring we’re able to take action when we need to so we can protect our residents.
- Hard flooring (section 5.4)
The change would mean that people need to ask the Council before installing laminate, wood or tile flooring. We want to ensure that flooring is installed properly, and with good sound insulation below, because of the high volume of complaints where poor installation of the floor is to blame. If you’ve already got hard flooring installed, we would only look at this condition if your flooring was shown to be a problem for neighbours. At that point, we would work with you and offer support to improve the insulation or floor covering if you need it.
- Owning a home (section 4.1)
This change would mean that you cannot own another home in which you could reasonably live, while benefitting from a Council tenancy. This would keep Council housing available to those who need it most. With more than 3,200 on our housing register this important change would help ensure homes are allocated fairly. The new clause would also apply to inherited properties but there would be a 12 month period for people who inherit to decide what to do with their new property, or show that it doesn’t meet the criteria for the clause.
What’s not included?
These are the only changes we’re proposing to the tenancy agreement.
There has been some confusion about the rights of succession – where a Council tenancy can pass on to another person if the main tenant dies. Our proposals don’t cover succession because succession rights are governed by law – our policy is available on our website and was last updated in February 2021. View the policy here: www.bit.ly/KCscsn.
There is also nothing in the changes we are proposing that threatens or changes security of tenure. If you are on a lifetime tenancy at the moment, this will still be true if all these proposed changes are made.
What’s next?
The consultation closed on Monday 27 February after a combined total of 22 weeks of consultation since 2020. Given the level of interest in these changes it’s only right that we consider all the available information before reaching a conclusion.
We have agreed to fund independent legal advice on behalf of residents to make sure the concerns raised are thoroughly investigated. We will look at this advice alongside the consultation report before making a recommendation to the elected councillors who will ultimately decide the Council’s course of action.