Community Lives Consortium

Information about 'My' Tenancy

When you move into your own home and pay rent, this means that you are a tenant.

To be a tenant, you need to sign a document called a Tenancy Agreement.

• If you own your own home this means you are a Home Owner.
• You may have a mortgage from a bank or Building Society.

The tenancy agreement tells you about your rights and your responsibilities when you live in your home.

What do ‘Rights’ mean? Rights mean the things that must happen for you. These are some of your important rights

• You can have your own key to the front door and a key for your bedroom, as long as it's safe for you to have keys.
• You will always have a say about the support and service you receive.
• You can be private in your own room
• You can invite friends and family to visit you.
• If your house or room needs any repairs, you can ask for them to be done.

The Consortium will always try to make sure that you feel safe in your home, and are not upset or frightened by anyone in your house and the area outside your house.

If you are unhappy about anything you can always complain to the Consortium.

Well, that tells you about some of your rights. let’s now talk about some of your responsibilities.

What do ‘responsibilities’ means

Responsibilities are the things you must do.

These are some of your important responsibilities

• You must always pay your rent on time.
• You must not damage your home in any way.
• You, or your guests must not upset or frighten other people in your home.
• You must look after your home and keep it clean and tidy
• You must always accept the support you need to help you keep your Tenancy

It is very important that you understand your rights and responsibilities. You can ask your keyworker or Housing Support Coordinator to explain them to you in more detail.

Remember, if you don’t keep to your responsibilities, you could be asked to leave your home. 

You can have a say in what happens in your home. you can agree some house rules with other people you live with and the staff who give you support.

Some of the rules you might want to agree on, are things like,

• How you will pay bills, like electricity and gas,
• How you will pay for the food you might share,
• How you should keep out of each others rooms unless invited in.

You might want to agree some rules with support staff too. These might be things like 

• Staff should not invite other people into your house without asking you first.
• Only some of the staff will have a key to your home.
• Staff will not hold meetings in your home without asking you first.

So remember, talk to all the people who live in your home, and to staff, about what rules you want to agree on.