Your introductory tenancy

What is an introductory tenancy?

We give all new tenants a trial period to show they can keep to the tenancy agreement, look after their home and not be a nuisance to neighbours.

This trial period is your introductory tenancy.

This is to show you that we are serious about collecting rent and protecting people from anti-social behaviour (ASB). But nearly every introductory tenant is very responsible and goes on to get a secure tenancy with no problem.

As an introductory tenant, you get as much protection as a secure tenant. If you are a victim of someone else’s bad behaviour during your trial period we’ll give you the same help as a secure tenant.

As a new tenant you must sign an introductory tenancy before you move into your home.

What are my rights as an introductory tenant?

As an introductory tenant,you won’t have the right to: buy your home; take in lodgers; sublet part of your home; improve your home or exchange it with another tenant.

You can however ask for permission to take in lodgers, improve your home or exchange. We will decide if you can go ahead.

Becoming a secure tenant

If there are no problems during your introductory tenancy you will automatically become a secure tenant on the date written on the front of your tenancy agreement. We’ll tell you in writing when this happens.

If there are problems

We hope your introductory tenancy period is problem free. We’ll always try to help if you have any problems. But we will act quickly if you break your tenancy agreement. We will always investigate first to see if we can sort things out. If the problem is serious, or if you won’t cooperate with our efforts to find a solution, we’ll take legal action to evict you straight away.

Rent

Your tenancy agreement says that you must pay your rent on time. If you don’t pay we will contact you. We’ll check you’re getting the right benefits and agree a payment plan with you. But we’ll take action to evict you if you don’t sort the arrears out.

We’ll also take action if you are persistently late paying or if you won’t keep to a repayment plan.

Anti-social behaviour

We must protect your community and our property. So if someone tells us you’ve been acting anti-socially we will investigate the matter. If the complaint is justified we will take action. If the problem is quite minor we’ll tell you to change your behaviour – we may bring in a mediation expert to help you see things from the other person’s point of view.

But if you won’t cooperate, or if your actions are very anti-social (such as violence, racial harassment, or drug related), you won’t get a second chance. We’ll take immediate action to evict you.

It’s important to remember that you are not only responsible for your own behaviour. We will take action against you if someone living with you, or a visitor to your home is anti-social and it doesn’t matter where the nuisance happens – in your home, outside it or anywhere in the area.

Other circumstances

We can also evict you in other circumstances, for example if you don’t use the property as your main home. See your tenancy agreement for full details.

We may need to move you out of your home because it needs major building work or repair or it has to be demolished. If that happens we will offer you another suitable home.

Taking action

If we want to evict a secure tenant (for example due to rent arrears or anti-social behaviour) we have to give them the chance to put their side of the story at a court hearing. A judge will decide if the eviction can go ahead. However, we can evict an introductory tenant more easily and quickly.

Notice to end your introductory tenancy

If you have broken your introductory tenancy agreement we will send you a Notice to Terminate.

If it goes ahead you will lose your home.

Asking for a review

If we intend to evict you as an introductory tenant we will:

• tell you in writing that we’re going to go to court to evict you
• allow you to ask for a review of the case, but you must do this within 14 days.

You can ask for a review of the case by filling in the Request for a Review form sent with the letter telling you of the action against you. Send it back to the address on the form.

We must get your request within 14 days of the date written on the bottom of the Notice to Terminate.

The review

If you ask for a review of our decision to evict you, we will:

• tell you the date, time and place of the review at least 5 days in advance
• send you the final decision within 2 weeks of the review.

You can come to the review and bring someone with you if you want. A senior officer who was not involved in the original decision will review the case.

The review will look at any information you give us, and check that we have correctly followed the legal procedure for ending your tenancy.

If they agree that the eviction can go ahead, you won’t be able to appeal to anyone else.

Although we still have to ask a court to give the final permission, the eviction happens automatically as long as we’ve followed the procedure properly.

Taking possession of your home

If the review agrees with the original decision, we will ask the court for permission to evict you.

The court will tell you the date by which you must leave your home. If you have not left by then, we will ask the court bailiffs to remove you from the property.

We will take action to recover any rent you still owe and charge you for any damage or cleaning of your home if you don’t leave it in good condition.

After the eviction

Your name may go onto our re-housing review list,which means that the City Council may not offer you another home in the future.

This may mean that you would become homeless.

This doesn’t make any difference to the decision to evict you from your home – that will still go ahead.

Advice

If we do have to take action like this, you can get advice from the Council’s Housing Options Team on 01452 396503 or you can get independent advice from:

The Citizens’ Advice

Bureau

01452 527202

www.gloucestercab.org.uk|

Shelter

Tel: 0808 800 4444

www.shelter.org.uk|

The Gloucester Law

Centre

Tel: 01452 423492

www.gloucesterlawcentre.co.uk|

A solicitor.