Your rights & responsibilities
Your rights
As a tenant the law gives you certain rights. Your rights are:
The Right to Security
You have the security of knowing that as long as you use your Westfield home as your main home, keep to the tenancy agreement including paying your rent, you can keep your tenancy for as long as you like. Your tenancy can only be ended under certain circumstances - and we have to go to court to convince a Judge that we are right to move you out. If the situation is not your fault (we may need the property empty to make major structural repairs for instance), you will be offered another home and you will keep all your rights. In other cases - if you break rules in the tenancy agreement or refuse to pay off unpaid rent - you may be evicted and will not be offered somewhere else.
The Right to Pass on Your Tenancy
In the event of your death, your tenancy will go to your husband, wife or other person you were in a relationship with (if they were living with you at the time). The tenancy could also succeed to a close relative, such as a child, brother or sister, but they must have lived there for at least the previous 12 months. This is called the “right to succession”. Succession can only happen once. If succession is appropriate but the home is too large for that person, or has been developed for a specific need not required by the successor, we may offer another property so that the existing home can go to a household who needs it.
The Right to Have Lodgers or Sub-Let
You cannot move out and sub-let the whole of your home and you cannot sub-let part of your home . You can take in a lodger as long as this does not mean that your home will be overcrowded. However, you must let us know if this is something you are thinking of doing as we will need more information about the person you are thinking of moving in (we will tell you the maximum number of people allowed) .
Make sure you check how this affects your Housing Benefit or Universal Credit. You are responsible for the behaviour of lodgers. If they cause a nuisance to neighbours or damage the property, you are putting your own tenancy at risk.
Your responsibiities
Tenants have a duty to comply with their tenancy conditions. This includes not causing a nuisance or racial, religious or other harassment, or allowing the premises to be used for illegal purposes. The obligation extends to those living in or visiting the property. Tenant’s causing anti-social behaviour may be subject to legal actions such as possession proceedings, injunctions and demoted tenancies.
You are also responsible for keeping your home in a reasonable condition, for attempting to solve minor problems and for insuring the contents of your home.
You are expected to take reasonable precautions to prevent damage to the property by fire, frost, the bursting of water pipes or the blocking of drains and sinks.
We rely on you to report any faults promptly and to provide access to our staff to make sure that the repair can be undertaken within our agreed timescales.
Finally, remember that someone else will be moving into your home if you ever decide to leave. Please make sure that the property is clean, tidy, reasonably decorated and in good repair, and that all your unwanted belongings have been cleared including from any roof space and garden/external areas. At the end of your tenancy all rent must be paid as due. Any unpaid rent will be sought, as well as any rechargeable repairs required. Legal action will be pursued for any outstanding rent/debt not paid.
