It's important to know your rights as a social housing resident:
- We've created this webpage to help you to understand your rights as a social housing tenant, and to spell-out the ways we (Be One Homes) and other organisations can help you to exercise these rights.
This includes the various ways you can hold us to account if you think we’ve fallen short of expectations – such as making a complaint or approaching the Housing Ombudsman.
You can also find more specific information on your rights and responsibilities in your Tenancy Agreement. It will detail things like rent and service charges, repairs, and acceptable behaviour.
Here's an overview of your rights as a social housing tenant:
Right to possession:
You can live in your home for as long as you want to, providing you keep to the regulations and conditions of the tenancy.
Right to Buy/Right to Acquire:
You may have the right to buy or acquire your home at a discount.
Right of succession:
You can pass on your home to someone in your family living with you when you die, if they have been living with you in the property for 12 months immediately prior to your death. This can only happen once during a tenancy.
For more information on succeeding to a tenancy, please tap here.
Right to take in lodgers:
With our permission you can take in lodgers so long as it will not become overcrowded.
Tap here for more information on taking in lodgers and details on how to make a request.
Right to improve your home:
You can carry out improvements to your home with our permission.
Right to compensation for improvements:
You can be paid for certain improvements you have made if you move house.
Right to exchange:
With our permission you can exchange your property for another one.
For more information on mutually exchanging your property, please tap here.
Right to consultation:
You have a right to be consulted on housing management matters.
Right to information:
You have a right to a tenancy agreement and information on your rights. You can ask to look at information that we hold on our records about you.
Learn more about your rights as a social housing resident:
You can tap on the tabs below for more information on your rights. As always, please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions and we’ll do what we can to help. You can tap here to see our main contact details.
You have a right to be safe in your home
- As a social housing landlord, we have a legal duty to provide safe and habitable properties for our customers that meet health and safety legislation.
This includes ensuring that your home is free from serious hazards, including damp and mould, as required by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS), the Housing Act 2004, and the Social Housing Regulation Act 2023.
More information relating to the Housing Act and Safety Rating system can be found here:
- Tap here for details on the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) - guidance for landlords and property-related professionals (opens in a new tab).
- Tap here for details on The Housing Act 2004 (opens in a new tab).
- Tap here for details on The Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2024 (opens in a new tab).
We adhere to the requirements of the Fitness for Human Habitation Act 2018, which is designed to ensure that all rented accommodation is fit for human habitation and to strengthen tenants’ means of redress against the minority of landlords, who do not fulfil their legal obligations to keep their properties safe. More information relating to the Fitness for Human Habitation Act 2018 can be found by tapping here.
We also have to comply with The Building Safety Act 2022, which offers customers living in buildings over seven storeys or 18 metres tall more rights and protections. It ensures that buildings are properly maintained and faults are fixed whilst protecting customers from costs. This offers customers greater peace of mind in a safe and secure home. More information relating to The Building Safety Act 2022 can be found by tapping here.
More advice and guidance on staying safe at home:
You have a right to a good quality home that meets the Decent Homes Standard, and a good neighbourhood to live in
- As your landlord, we're committed to keeping your home in good repair and ensuring that our neighbourhoods are looked after and are good places to live, work, visit, and play.
We’ll provide you with notice of any visits to carry out repairs or maintenance or to view the condition and state of repair of the premises.
- If you need to report a repair, you can tap here for further information on how to do it.
- For more information on how we tackle and resolve neighbourhood nuisance, antisocial behaviour (ASB) and Hate Crime, tap here.
- For information on our approach to maintaining our land, tap here.
- For details on how our Safeguarding Team can help if you're concerned about yourself or someone else, tap here.
- For information on home adaptations and our Care and Repair service, tap here.
You have a right to know how your landlord is performing
- We're committed to being a transparent landlord and showing our customers how we're performing in various areas.
We publish information relating to a number of service areas, including repairs, complaints, safety, and how we spend the money we generate, so you can hold us to account.
Our website contains lots of readily available information you can access, including our annual report:
You can make a complaint, leave a compliment, or make a suggestion
- You have the right to have your complaints dealt with promptly and fairly, with access to the Housing Ombudsman (who will give you swift and fair redress when needed)
We want you to be happy with the services you receive and we value your feedback. We welcome both positive and negative comments as they help us to improve and learn from our experiences. We want to:
- Listen to your feedback, good or bad.
- Deal with complaints efficiently and effectively.
- Keep you up to date with progress.
- Be open and honest about the process.
If we fail to deliver on our promises, you may wish to complain. If you’d like:
- steps on how to make a complaint, leave a compliment, or make a suggestion,
- details on how we're learning and improving,
- and details on how to approach the Housing Ombudsman (if you still aren't satisfied with how we've dealt with your complaint)..
External information on complaints and the Housing Ombudsman:
- Tap here to learn more about the Housing Ombudsman Service, which is a free service that helps resolve disputes between tenants and landlords (opens in a new tab).
- Our approach to handling complaints is compliant with the Housing Ombudsman’s Complaint Handling Code, which you can read by tapping here (opens in a new tab).
- The UK government website also provides information for social housing tenants, including how to complain, and you can access it by tapping here (opens in a new tab).
You have the right to be treated with respect
- We're committed to treating all our customers with respect, and we have a range of mechanisms in place that support us to do so:
Together with tenants is a sector-wide initiative focused on strengthening the relationship between residents and housing association landlords.
We have to demonstrate that we meet the strict requirements contained within the Regulator of Social Housing’s Consumer Standards.
Before we attend your home to carry out a repair or check the condition of the property, you’ll receive notice from us. Appointments can be confirmed in a number of ways, including, but not limited to, the use of text messages and letters.
You have the right to have your voice heard by your landlord
- There are many ways you can get involved with what we do.
You have the Right to Buy or Right to Acquire your home
We also have other options if you're interested in owning a home:
Rent to Buy:
Rent to Buy helps tenants in England save for a deposit to buy a home by offering properties at a discount.
Shared Ownership:
Put simply, Shared Ownership is a cross between buying and renting a home. You buy a share of the property, usually between a quarter and three quarters, and then rent the part you don’t own at a reduced rate. You then have the option to buy a bigger share in the property in future.
More information on your rights and responsibilities
- You can find more specific information on your rights and responsibilities in your Tenancy Agreement. It will detail things like rent and service charges, repairs, and acceptable behaviour.
Here are some additional resources to help you understand your rights:
Social housing providers are regulated by the Regulator of Social Housing, which ensures social housing providers are financially stable, well-managed, and meet these obligations.
Housing Rights is a charity that offers advice on social housing rights
Shelter (also a UK charity) have several pages to help you understand your tenancy rights:
The gov.uk website has a page explaining the Regulator of Social Housing’s role and what happens when they receive a complaint or a referral:
The gov.uk website has a page explaining the support you can expect if you’re a tenant experiencing antisocial behaviour:
Heard about 'Four Million Homes'?
- If you'd like to learn more about your rights as a social housing tenant, an opportunities and empowerment programme called Four Million Homes has been created to help with just that..
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), now known as the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), introduced Four Million Homes to help rebalance power between residents and landlords.
This initiative follows the Make Things Right Campaign and improvements to the Social Housing Regulation Bill, including Awaab’s Law, which requires social landlords to fix hazards like damp and mould within set time frames.
The programme aims to help social housing residents understand their rights, know how to raise issues with their landlords, and shape and improve the services they receive and the homes they live in. It offers advice and training on resident rights and how to stand up for them. The Four Million Homes programme:
- Helps residents know their rights and how to access the Housing Ombudsman service.
- Empowers residents with knowledge of their landlord’s responsibilities to provide safe and decent homes.
- Enables residents to feel confident in reporting problems to their landlord.
- Encourages residents to be involved and take an active role in how their homes are managed.
Four Million Homes includes a social media campaign (stay up to date on X, Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, and LinkedIn).
There are webinars on a wide range of topics and eight accredited face-to-face training modules available across England, including Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Newcastle, and Nottingham.
You can also tap here to access online training videos on the Four Million Homes website.
Residents can also join a Resident Sounding Board to ensure the ongoing development of Four Million Homes reflects residents’ views and concerns.
While the training is aimed at social housing residents, staff are welcome to participate to understand the training content and encourage residents to sign up.
Did you know we've made six commitments as part of the Together with tenants charter..?
- As part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen our relationship with customers, enhance levels of engagement and improve satisfaction, we follow the Together with tenants framework and charter.
The charter consists of six commitments and gives us another opportunity to put customers at the heart of strategic decision-making, strengthen our accountability, and work together to deliver positive change.
