Maintaining Your Tenancy

Maintaining Your Tenancy

We want our tenants to feel safe and secure in their homes and we certainly don’t want them to find themselves at risk of homelessness. Here is some important information about how you can avoid that risk.

Keep to Your Tenancy Agreement

Your tenancy agreement sets out the things you need to do to maintain your side of the agreement, including:

– Making your rent payments when you are supposed to

– Looking after your home and garden

– Avoiding disturbance to your neighbours

If you don’t keep to your tenancy agreement our first step will always be to discuss the circumstances with you to try and find a solution. If we contact you, please don’t ignore us as this will make it even more difficult to find a resolution.

Ask us for Help

We have lots of ways we can help dependent on the issues you are facing:

> A budgeting and payment plan can be agreed if you are struggling to manage your finances.

> We can refer you to Citizens Advice or benefit and debt advice.

> We have a hardship fund that we may be able to use to help you improve your welfare.

> We can discuss alternative housing options with you if you can no longer afford to live in your home, you may need to downsize for instance.

> We can link into support service providers in the city who may be able to help you.

Types of Issues we can Help With

If you are experiencing any of the following issues, please contact us and we can discuss how we can help you:

*  Risk of eviction due to tenancy breaches

*  Hoarding

*  Rent arrears

*  Overdue compliance checks– for example, gas and electric checks or fire door checks

*  Substance abuse issues

*  Mental health issues

*  Domestic Abuse

*  Generally struggling to cope with your tenancy

Call us on 01782 968566 or email info@stokeontrenthousignsociety.org.uk to arrange a chat. We will be happy to come and speak to you in your home or you can come to our office.

If we can’t agree

Occasionally, we can’t come to an agreement about the problem. If, for example, your rent arrears keep increasing, or your family’s behaviour continues to cause serious concern, we may have no option but to start the process that leads to your eviction from the property. If this is the case, we would recommend that you contact to Citizens Advice  or get other legal advice.

There are several steps in the eviction process, and we would keep you informed of each of these.

Eviction

If we evict you, you may be homeless. If you are potentially homeless, you can ask Stoke on Trent City Council to assess your case and they may offer you accommodation. However, if they decide that you are intentionally homeless, because you’ve deliberately failed to keep up your rent payments for example, they’re not obliged to house you. Further information about homelessness is available via Shelter or Stoke on Trent City Council