Leaving Your Home

You may decide to leave your property. You may, for example, be exchanging with another tenant or moving to more suitable accommodation. This final section explains what to do and what will happen.

Moving Away

To end your tenancy you must give us four weeks’ notice in writing and, if possible, provide a forwarding address. The notice period gives us the time to find a new tenant. During the notice period, our staff will call on you to carry out an end-of-tenancy inspection. The visit will have three main purposes:

• To note any repairs that we may have to complete before the new tenant moves in.
• To ensure that all fixtures and fittings for which you are responsible are intact.
• To ensure the garden is in a reasonable condition.

If any of the fittings are damaged, we will point them out and you will be expected to repair or replace them before you leave.

If you have made any alterations or improvements to your home, you will have to decide if you intend to leave them or take them with you. For instance, let’s say you replaced the original gas fire with your own gas fire. As you own your fire you could remove it and take it with you. If you do this, you will have to install a fire of similar quality to the original and repair and make good any damage to the property caused by the removal and installation.

Shortly before you vacate the property, you should inform all appropriate agencies, such as the gas, electricity and water companies, that you are moving. Finally, please return the keys of the property by 12 noon on the last Friday of your notice period. We will already have a new tenant waiting for the keys to move in. So, it is important that the keys are returned promptly. If the keys are not returned before the required time, you could be charged a further week's rent.

Transferring to Another CCHA Home

While you are a tenant, you may need a different type of accommodation. For instance, you may need more bedrooms because the size of your family has increased, or you may need ground floor accommodation if you are having difficulty climbing the stairs.

To meet the needs of our tenants, our Accommodation Register is open to all tenants. Full details on how the Accommodation Register can help you get a more suitable property is available on the Getting a Home section of this site.

Before we can approve a transfer, you have to meet certain conditions. They are:

• Your rent account must be clear of arrears or you must have kept to an agreement to clear the arrears.
• Any chargeable repairs must be paid for unless you have kept to an instalment repayment arrangement with us.
• Your property must be in a reasonable decorative condition.
• Your tenancy must have been conducted satisfactorily.
• No member of your household must be made homeless as a result of a transfer.

If you wish to apply for a transfer, simply contact us and ask for a transfer application form.

Useful contact point – your Housing Officer.

Exchanging Your Home

You have the right to exchange your property with other CCHA tenants, with Council tenants or with other housing association tenants. However, both you and the person with whom you intend to swop must have their landlord’s written permission before any move can take place.

All exchanges take place by way of assignment. In other words, if you agree a swop with another tenant you are exchanging each other’s tenancies as well as each other’s properties. In effect, by agreeing to an exchange, you are taking over the other tenant’s existing tenancy and therefore that tenant’s rights, obligations and responsibilities. This point is particularly important if the swop is between an assured tenant and a secure tenant. For example, let’s say a CCHA assured tenant arranges an exchange with a CCHA secure tenant. By agreeing to the exchange, the secure tenant becomes an assured tenant. So he or she loses the Tenants' Charter rights and the right to a Fair Rent but gains the assured tenant’s contractual rights. In turn, the assured tenant becomes a secure tenant, gaining the Tenants' Charter rights and the right to a Fair Rent. In addition, many secure tenants of housing associations have the right to buy their homes at a discount – indeed, former Adamsdown HA secure tenants have this right. By agreeing to an exchange with an assured tenant, the secure tenant would also lose the right to buy.

So don’t be surprised if the tenant with whom you intend to swop asks you for details of your tenancy type. Equally, always make sure you find out what type of tenancy is being offered to you. If you are in any doubt, do not hesitate to contact us for advice.

To help tenants interested in swopping, we have an exchange list in the office reception. It gives the names and addresses of those who wish to exchange. To add your name to this list, please ask for an application form.

If another tenant is interested in an exchange with you, you must write to us giving details of the move you wish to make and stating that you will accept the property in the condition that you find it. So, if you’re concerned as to the condition of the property to which you would like to move, make sure that you discuss it beforehand with the person with whom you wish to exchange. We are not responsible for any redecoration or any damage that may have been caused by the previous tenant or his/her family.

When we get your letter, we will arrange to visit you to discuss the move and to carry out an inspection. We will not unreasonably refuse to allow an exchange and, in fact, most exchanges are trouble free. But we can, for specific reasons, refuse to allow an exchange – for example, if the incoming tenant would overcrowd the property or leave it under-occupied, or if you or they were in rent arrears.

Useful contact point – your Housing Officer

Need further information? Please ask for our leaflet, ‘Exchanging Your Home: A Guide to Tenants’.

Opprtunities to Buy a Home of Your Own

As a housing association tenant you have the opportunity to buy a property with a grant or discount to reduce the cost. Currently, there are two main schemes. They are:

Low-Cost Home Ownership: We run our own low cost homeownership scheme to help peolpe on modest incomes on to the property ladder. You can a home which is in the scheme for between 55 - 70% of the full sale price. You only have to find a mortgage for the percentage of the property you decide to buy. We will then provide you with a loan for the remaining percentage - and you pay nothing on this loan till you decide to sell the property.

For full details of our scheme and the properties currently available please vist www.myplaceinthebay.co.uk

Buying the home you live in: Depending on a number of rules and on the type of tenancy you have, you could buy the property you live in.

For full details, contact our office.