Your rights
It's important to know your rights. Read through your tenancy agreement and resident handbook carefully. You'll find the handbook at the bottom of this page. If you're unclear about anything, please speak to your local officer.
Download the resident handbook for social and affordable rent and lettings standard
Your responsibilities
We expect you to pay your rent on time and in full.
If you're experiencing financial difficulty and are worried about being able to pay your rent or service charge on time, please log in into My Account to get in touch with your housing officer for advice and read our benefits and money advice page.
Clogged drains, broken light bulbs and dead batteries in a fire detector are all examples of repairs we expect you to carry out yourself, along with a variety of others. If a repair requires contractors to do any work, we expect you to let them inside.
It is one of the conditions of your tenancy that you and the other people living in your house or block keep the shared areas clean (unless you have a cleaner you pay for by a service charge added to your rent) and free from obstruction.
If you have a furnished tenancy, we expect you to take care of the furniture and let us know if anything is broken or damaged. You may keep the furniture for as long as you stay in your home. You'll need our permission to remove any furniture.
You may think because your belongings are inside a Notting Hill Genesis property they would automatically fall under our insurance policy. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case. Notting Hill Genesis does not have a financial interest in your contents or personal belongings. Your contents and personal belongings are your property and therefore your financial duty to have the appropriate contents insurance cover to protect you and your contents and belongings against damage or theft. You should seek independent insurance advice to help you arrange contents. To help you, the National Housing Federation My Home Contents Insurance Scheme in conjunction with Thistle Tenant Risks can offer tenants and residents the option to insure the contents inf their homes. As one option, please read 'My Home contents Insurance' leaflet for more information.
A tenant is unlawfully subletting if he/she signs a tenancy agreement with a landlord, doesn't live in the property him/herself, and instead charges someone else to live in the property and earns money from the rent.
Unlawful subletting is a very serious matter. You can be prosecuted for tenancy fraud if you are found to be unlawfully subletting, and your application for permanent housing with your local council can be annulled.
Please refer to your tenancy agreement and resident handbook if you’re unsure about what is and is not allowed, or read further information about subletting and lodgers. If you're still unsure, you should get in contact with your housing officer/PMO via My Account.
We expect you to treat our staff with respect and avoid strong language or threatening behaviour. Where behaviour is unacceptable, legal action will be taken.
Which tenancy type do you have?
If you’re a new tenant in social or supported housing
Most tenants in social or supported housing are given an assured tenancy. This means you can stay in your property permanently.
If you’re a new tenant in other types of homes
In other types of homes, like temporary accommodation, keyworker and some of our supported schemes we issue assured shorthold tenancies. These are usually designed to be shorter tenancies.
For Intermediate Market Rent, Keyworker and London Living Rent homes we issue fixed term tenancies.
All tenancies are granted in line with our tenancy policy.
Right to Buy for tenants
Some tenants have a right to purchase their home. There are three schemes through which you may be able to buy the home you’re currently renting at a discounted price.
If you're interested and think you might be eligible for any of these schemes, please contact your housing officer by logging in to My Account. You can also find out more about buying one of our shared ownership homes.