Important Information for Tenants
Your Tenancy
It is important that you know what kind of Tenancy you have. This will vary according to how long you have been a tenant of WPH. Some guidance is given below, but do not rely on this if you are unsure, have any questions or need further information. Please contact us.
There are two main types of Tenancy for WPH tenants.
- Assured Tenants are those who were tenants before the transfer of their home from Wirral Council to WPH in February 2005 and those who signed after that date but who have been tenants one year or more. In general terms such tenants have the same rights and responsibilities, but only those tenants who had the Right to Buy their home before the transfer will have it now. All Assured tenants have the Right to Acquire which is similar to but not as attractive in financial terms for the tenant, as the Right to Buy. Please get in touch if you want more information about this right or any other matter to do with your tenancy.
- Starter Tenants are those who have been tenants for less than one year or in a very small number of cases tenants who we have formally notified that we will be extending their Starter Tenancy. In legal terms Starter Tenants have a one year Assured Shorthold Tenancy, which will "convert" to an Assured Tenancy, (as outlined above), on its first anniversary. As a Starter Tenant you have fewer rights than Assured Tenants and it is easier for WPH to remove you from your home if you breach your tenancy conditions. In effect a Starter Tenancy puts you "on probation" for your first twelve months as a WPH tenant.
A small proportion of tenants have not signed the Assured Tenancy Agreement they were asked to sign at the time of the transfer. Failure to do this can adversely affect your rights as a tenant. If you have not signed, or are unsure whether you have or have not, please get in touch and we can easily rectify the situation.
Service Standards
WPH provide a wide range of services to its tenants. To allow you to know what the service amounts to we set out a range of service standards. These allow you to evaluate whether or not we are delivering the service we said we would, to a standard that we have made clear. All of our customers are invited to comment on our service standards and to tell us where the standard is not high enough, where we fall short of the standard we have set and, we hope, tell us if we exceed our own standard. There are many ways to do this.
You can:
- Use our Compliments, Comments and Complaints policy and let us know in any way that is convenient for you.
- Volunteer for one or more of the many Service Review groups that we run throughout the year. Contact the Tenant Involvement Team if you are interested.
- Volunteer for the Tenant Audit Team and join other tenants in formally auditing the services we provide. If you have particular skills, knowledge or expertise, for example from your current or former employment, as a volunteer or because of training you have received, we would like to hear from you. This involvement will require you to undergo further training. Contact the Tenant Involvement Team
- Get involved with other tenants in a formal or informal tenants group and represent the views of many tenants in your area. Again, the Tenant Involvement Team can put you in touch with existing groups, help you set one up or establish you as a "Lone Voice" if there is no group to work with.
Estate Inspections
One of the ways that you can help us to maintain and raise standards in your own area is to join us on Estate Inspections. Every estate and housing scheme is inspected on a regular basis and we welcome tenants being involved in that process. It is not too time consuming and can make a real difference as WPH staff members can get comments and suggestions straight from you about issues and concerns where you live.
If you are interested contact your Area Office. There is a Notice Board in the reception area that advertises inspections that are about to take place. Please join in.
Gas Appliance Servicing
One of the Service Standards that the Law requires us to meet is the efficient and "on time" servicing of gas appliances. We have to inspect and service these appliances every year and our Regulators will check that we have done so. It is a criminal offence for us to fail in this regard and the safety of you and your household is threatened if we don't do it.
A relatively small number of tenants do not respond when we ask for access to carry out the checks and servicing. This causes us a great deal of extra and expensive work and not a little worry! We will always insist on gaining access to carry out this work. We will go to Court to enforce our right to access and we may ask the Court to terminate tenancies and recharge our costs in extreme cases.
Please help us to ensure your safety.