Moving in

This explains what we do:

before a home becomes empty
when a home is empty
to get an empty home ready for a new tenant
when a new tenant moves in.

We want you to be happy with your new home. This page also explains our service standards so that you can check that we have met them - and how to tell us if we haven't.

With around 4,800 homes to manage and people moving in and out each week, we will always have some empty homes. Our aim is to have as few empty homes as possible and get them ready for new tenants as fast as we can.

View our GCH Welcome DVD for new tenants.|

Before a home becomes empty

When a tenants tells us they are moving we need to find a new tenant straight away. We start doing this even before the home is empty. That's why it's really important that you give us 4 weeks notice if you are moving. It's your responsibility to leave your home empty and in good repair. We will ask you why you are moving and use the information you give us to improve our services.

We will:

identify quickly, homes that are empty or likely to become empty
relet them promptly to avoid losing rent and help people who need rehousing.

When a home is empty

While a home is empty we do a range of work to make it fit for you to move in.

Our service standards

We will:

inspect empty homes within 1 working day of getting the keys
order repairs within 1 working day of inspection
cut the average time we take to re-let empty homes to the minimum needed to make them safe and fit to live in
take photographs of the home to ensure we have a record of how it looked when we let it.

Our Resident Inspectors help us to achieve these standards.

Select this link for our Ready to Relet Standard| - the standard you can expect on moving into your new home.

When we offer you a tenancy we will:

give you information on the local area
explain our range of customer services
give you our contact details
tell you what your weekly rent (and any other charges) are, and how you can pay them.

Whe we sign you up for the tenancy we will:

explain our tenancy agreement and tenants handbook to you – what we will expect from you and what you can expect from us
give you a personal tour of your new home, (unless we did this before the previous tenants moved out or while the home was empty, if there was no health and safety risk)
tell you if you are eligible for decoration vouchers. If so, we will agree with you the amount with you and give you the voucher(s) within 1 working day of the visit
check if you are happy that we have met our Ready to Relet Standard
make sure you know how to arrange to take over all services such as gas, electricity, water and sewerage, and how to pay your Council Tax
remind you to tell all your key contacts and relevant agencies you are moving in to your new home and advise you on easy ways to do this.