Changes to NCC Tenancy Agreement

***Changes to Newcastle City Council’s Tenancy Agreement*** Earlier this year Newcastle City Council reviewed the current tenancy agreement and decided to propose some changes to it to make it a stronger agreement that better reflects the lives of tenants and their priorities.

Key proposed changes included: 

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Changing the rent payment cycle from 49 weeks currently to 52 weeks giving tenants a choice in make overpayments where it is currently compulsory and also to bringing rent collection cycle more in line with housing cost element payments with regards to Universal Credit.

A stronger clause in relation to domestic violence to include other types of domestic abuse with a widened geographical area where the abuse takes place.

An enhanced clause about tenant responsibilities in respect to looking after gardens and fences in recognition that the appearance of gardens can impact heavily upon the wider environment and how people feel about where they live.

During a 4 week period between 26 June and 24 July every tenant was contacted and asked to tell us what they thought of the changes. During this time staff from YHN and the Council worked together to talk to as many people as possible at the changes.

Talking to tenants about the changes: We had a very busy month talking to tenants and gathering people’s views about the changes.  We held 5 roadshows at our Housing Offices and 2 at the City Centre Library and 2 focus groups also at the Library.  We set up a dedicated page on our website full of info about the changes and how to give your views. We also regularly posted information on Facebook and Twitter to let people know what was happening.  We created a special email address to respond directly to enquiries and our Enquiry Centre staff were briefed on the changes so that they could take calls and answer enquiries.  We created some simple customer videos about the changes and sent tenants a dedicated newsletter about it all as well as individually writing to every tenant.  We provided a paper and online feedback form so that every tenant could give their views. Post box stations were set up across our offices and Sheltered Housing schemes to receive tenant feedback.

Email tenancyagreement@yhn.org.uk if you have any specific enquiries about the tenancy agreement changes

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We put together a frequently asked questions log addressing the key questions that tenants had to help everyone understand the changes better.

The response:

 Over 90 tenants attended and received info and advice at our roadshows.  30 tenants attended out focus groups and were given a dedicated presentation on the changes and had a chance to ask questions.  Over 850 tenants completed a feedback form and directly told us if they agreed or didn’t agree with the proposed changes.  Over 175 tenants completed their feedback form online  Our dedicated email address dealt with over 300 email enquires What happens next?

The great news is that with over 90% of tenants agreeing to the proposed changes the Council have now agreed the new tenancy agreement. In agreeing the new tenancy agreement the Council has looked at and reviewed closely all the feedback from tenants and has made some changes in line with what people said. For full information on the changes please visit our website www/yhn.org.uk/tenancy or contact your local housing office.

The main feedback and queries from tenants were around changes to the rent payment cycle and tenants responsibilities in looking after their gardens, communal and shared areas. The new tenancy agreement will now come into effect in April 2018. Every tenant will receive a copy of their new tenancy agreement. You won’t need to re-sign it as the new one will simply replace the existing one. Don’t worry we will be contacting tenants and letting people know more about the finalised new version of the tenancy agreement and what all the changes mean to them next year.

There will be a further opportunity to speak to YHN and get any further advice and information you may need at this time.

Email tenancyagreement@yhn.org.uk if you have any specific enquiries about the tenancy agreement changes