The Tenant's Charter (Scotland)
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Foreword
This new Tenant's Charter is for all public sector tenants in
Scotland. The Government believe you are entitled to a high
quality standard of service from your landlord.
The Charter's programme of action is based on five principles on
which I believe there is wide agreement:
* strengthening your rights as a tenant.
* increasing your choice in your housing.
* improving the standards and quality of the housing service
you receive.
* making landlords more responsive to your needs as a
customer, and more accountable for their performance.
* better value for money in all areas of housing management.
In the last 12 years we have transformed Scottish housing. We
have provided
* wider choice in housing
* stronger rights for tenants
* more competition, for example between landlords, to raise
housing standards.
And Scottish Homes has been set up with new powers to improve the
quality and choice in housing.
We are determined to build on the greatly improved choice and
opportunities you now have. The Tenant's Charter sets out our
specific proposals to achieve this.
I urge all local authorities and other public sector landlords to
draw up their own individual Charters using the principles set
out in this Charter. I know that some have already started to do
this. You, as a tenant, should be at the centre of the planning
and operation of housing services. Good landlords will encourage
you to participate fully when decisions are taken that affect
you. I look forward with confidence to a positive approach by
authorities and their housing professional staff so that the
principles of the Tenant's Charter are put into action.
IAN LANG
Secretary of State for Scotland
December 1991
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Contents
* Introduction
* Your rights
* Owning your home
* Increasing your choice and control
* Improving the service you receive
* Right to repair
* Standards and performance
* Information and advice
* Good practice
* If things go wrong
* The way forward
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Introduction
This Charter is for council tenants in Scotland and for tenants
of Scottish Homes and the New Town Development Corporations. It
also affects tenants of housing associations. The Charter sets
out your existing rights and how the Government want to improve
them by:
* making it quicker to buy your home under the Right to
Buy and Rent to Mortgage schemes
* ensuring that your landlord tells you the standard of
service you can expect
* giving you more say in how the housing service is run and
stronger rights if something goes wrong
* improving the way your landlord manages your housing so
that it is more in line with what you want.
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Your Rights
Your rights and obligations as a public sector tenant in Scotland
are set out in the law. Your rights have been steadily improved
over the last 10 years.
Your Rights as a Secure Tenant
Security of tenure
Your cannot be evicted from your home without good reason.
Right to a written lease
Your landlord must give you a written lease setting out your
rights and obligations as a tenant, and those of your landlord.
Right to challenge unreasonable tenancy conditions
Your landlord cannot change your tenancy conditions without your
agreement, and you have the right to apply to the sheriff court
to have unreasonable tenancy conditions changed.
Right to take in lodgers or sublet, or transfer the tenancy to
someone else
You have the right to sub-let your house or part of it, or to
transfer the tenancy to someone else ('assign' it), unless your
landlord gives a good reason for refusing permission.
Right to alter or improve your home
You have the right to make changes to your home with your
landlord's permission, which he cannot withhold unreasonably.
Right to information about transfer and exchange rules
You have the right of access to your landlord's rules for entry
to housing lists, for allocations, for transfers and for
exchanges.
Right to succession
Your widow or widower, or any other member of your family living
with you, will usually be able to take over the tenancy when you
die.
Together with your right to buy your house, these form the basis
of the Tenant's Charter.
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Owning Your Home
Owning your home means you have full control over your own
housing. More than 70% of Scots families want to own their home,
and over 52% already do. This compares with only 35% in 1979. For
the first time ever, more than half of Scots families are home
owners. Nearly a quarter of a million tenants have bought their
homes using their Right to Buy.
Using the Right to Buy is straightforward and easy to understand.
If you want to buy your house you should contact your landlord.
Some Councils complete sales in 6 months or less, and the
Government believe they should all be able to deal with sales as
quickly. But too many tenants are faced with lengthy delays when
they want to buy their home.
The Government will change the law so that rent paid can count
towards the Right to Buy price, when the landlord delays a sale.
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Right To Buy
If you are buying your home your rent will be able to count
towards the purchase price if:
* your landlord does not issue an offer to sell within
2 months
* your landlord delays the completion of the sale.
In either case, you should serve a written notice on your
landlord asking for the work to be completed by a date at least a
month later. If the work is still not done, you should tell your
landlord in writing that rent will count towards the purchase
price from the date the delay began.
Not all tenants are able to use their Right to Buy. If you can't
quite afford the Right to Buy payments, the Rent to Mortgage
scheme enables you to buy your house for a monthly cost close to
your present rent. You are eligible to buy under the Rent to
Mortgage scheme unless:
* you are on housing benefit or basic income support
* your house is a sheltered or specially adapted house
* your house is system built and has been designated as
defective.
Your landlord will be able to tell you if you are in one of these
categories.
The results of the pilot scheme have been encouraging but under
present arrangements the scheme is complicated to operate and is
not as quick as it should be.
The Government will change the law to let you buy your house
direct from your landlord under Rent to Mortgage.
Instead of buying your house yourself, you may want to own a
group of houses jointly with your neighbours. In many parts of
Scotland, and especially in Glasgow, Community Ownership
Cooperatives have been set up.
Ownership cooperatives run by local people have successfully
improved some of the poorest inner city areas and large housing
estates.
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Increasing Your Choice and Control
If you do not want to be a home owner you can still have more
control over your housing. Unless you are already a housing
association tenant, you have a legal right to change your
landlord. Tenants' Choice lets you decide to transfer to a
housing cooperative, a housing association or another landlord
approved by Scottish Homes, if you wish.
Joining a Tenant Management Cooperative lets you and your
neighbours manage your houses, without owning them. It means you
control matters which closely affect you like choosing new
tenants, day-to-day repairs and maintenance, caretaking, rent
collection and arrears, and disputes.
In some parts of Scotland, you can also take part in decisions
about your area in the Partnership Initiatives at Castlemilk in
Glasgow, Ferguslie Park in Paisley, Wester Hailes in Edinburgh
and Whitfield in Dundee. In the Partnerships, local people work
with public and private bodies to decide how best to improve
their area.
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Improving the Service You Receive
Many landlords already provide a good service, carrying out their
duties efficiently, and keeping you informed. Some examples of
good housing management practice are:
* Scottish Homes has established a conciliation and arbitration
service for its tenants to use when they have a dispute with
Scottish Homes.
* Cunninghame District Council, Scottish Homes and some other
local authorities have issued Tenants' Handbooks giving full
details, in plain language, of their tenants' rights and
responsibilities, and about the housing services provided.
* The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations and Scottish
Homes have produced recommended performance standards for housing
associations. These set out the level of service which each
housing association should provide to its tenants.
* Edinburgh District Council has taken positive steps to tackle
the problem of tenants being harassed because of colour, race or
ethnic origin. It will take action against the person acting
wrongly. The Council has issued a leaflet to its tenants
explaining how to get help.
* Glasgow District Council has drawn up a Code of Guidance which
ensures that its tenants are fully consulted when the Council is
considering transferring houses to another landlord.
* Many authorities now have local offices which provide a better
service and enable you to make easier contact with them.
* Scottish Homes undertakes regular customer surveys to find out
what tenants think. It also checks performance against published
standards and has an easy to understand complaints procedure.
* Cumbernauld Development Corporation has made meeting facilities
available in each housing development area for the use of local
residents' associations.
* Dundee District Council in consultation with the Dundee
Federation of Tenants' Associations has drawn up a Charter for
its tenants setting out aims for achieving customer satisfaction
through the service which the Council undertakes to provide.
Your landlord should involve you as much as possible in decisions
about the management of your housing. Sometimes you will be able
to decide on matters which affect you, or work with your landlord
to reach a decision. Your landlord will not always be able to do
what you want, but should not ignore what you or representative
tenants' organisations have to say.
Landlords should pay attention to the views of all tenants,
including those with special needs or from ethnic minorities.
To make the services you receive better and more likely to be
what you want, the Government will:
* introduce a right to repair scheme
* ensure that you know what standard of service your
landlord undertakes to provide, and whether that standard
is met
* ensure that you have access to information and advice
* ensure that landlords are aware of examples of good
practice
* extend competition in housing management.
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Right to Repair
When something goes wrong you should be able to get it put right
quickly and efficiently. The way your repairs are carried out is
one of the commonest complaints. Your landlord must, by law, keep
your house at least wind and watertight and do other repairs set
out in your tenancy agreement. You can take your landlord to
court if this is not the case. But going to court is a big step
and is likely to take time when what you want is to have your
repair done quickly and properly.
The Government will introduce a new right to repair scheme for
tenants of councils, Scottish Homes, the New Town Development
Corporations, and housing associations.
The new Right to Repair
* will be easy to understand, simple to use, and take
account of your views
* will let you know how quickly your landlord should take
to do a repair
* will encourage all public sector landlords and housing
associations to have a repairs service as good as the best
* will give you a right to get urgent minor repairs done
when your landlord has not done them promptly.
If your landlord does not do an urgent repair costing up to 250
pounds promptly, you will be entitled to have it done by an
alternative contractor approved by your landlord. When the work
is done, the contractor will send the bill direct to your
landlord. Your landlord will have to tell you how quickly he
expects to do a repair covered by the scheme. Examples of the
kind of repairs which will be covered include:
* faults which could lead to a death or injury, eg gas
leaks, bare live wires
* faults which present a danger to health, eg
blocked/unusable WC, blocked drain causing sewage leak
* faults which cause serious inconvenience to occupants,
eg defective electrical fittings, failure of hot water
supply, loss of power to lighting on stairs or in the
kitchen, loss of electrical power to whole dwelling
* faults which could result in damage to your house or
its contents, eg burst pipes or leaks, insecure windows
above ground floor
* faults which put the security of your house at risk,
eg broken locks on doors and windows.
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Standards and Performance
Housing association tenants can already find out what standard of
service their landlord promises to provide and whether that
standard is met. Scottish Homes and the Scottish Federation of
Housing Associations have given housing associations guidance on
this. If your landlord is a local authority you should be equally
entitled to know what standard of service to expect and how well
your landlord has matched up to the standards set.
The Government will require local authority landlords to give you
information on standards and performance, such as repairs times,
rent arrears and management costs.
Your landlord already collects a large amount of information
about the service provided. But this will usually be for the
local authority as a whole. It lets you see how well your
landlord does overall. But you are more likely to want to know
what happens on your estate or in your village. It is not enough
for your landlord to choose what information you are given. You
as a tenant and tenants' organisations should be asked what
information you want.
The kind of information you may want is:
* standards - what your landlord promises to do, for example
o the time in which different repairs will be done
o how quickly your letters will be answered
o the time in which a Right to Buy sale will be completed
* performance - what your landlord has actually done, for example
o the time taken to do repairs
o the time taken to answer letters
o the time taken to sell houses under Right to Buy
o the number of tenants allocated houses
o the number of homeless people housed.
* To ensure that your landlord consults you properly about the
information provided, the Government will require each local
authority to produce a housing management plan, including details
of how it will be involving tenants.
* The Accounts Commission will help local authorities to measure
their performance and the cost of all their services, including
housing.
* The Accounts Commission will be able to publish league tables
of performance by local authorities showing what standard of
performance they provide and at what cost.
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Information and Advice
You are entitled to expect clear information in plain language on
matters that affect you. Even when it is easily available you may
need help to understand it. Good landlords will:
* ensure that you can talk to named members of staff who can
explain matters that affect you
* give every one of their tenants a handbook or information
pack with all the basic information you might need and
where you can find out more
* tell you about tenants' groups in your area
* tell you where else you can get advice on housing matters.
If you need information or advice you should usually speak to
your landlord first. But sometimes you will want independent
advice, perhaps on the law, because you have a complaint or
because you want to change your landlord. All tenants should have
access to a full range of information and advice about housing
problems and opportunities.
* Scottish Homes will work with advice agencies to prepare plans
to ensure that comprehensive advice is available to anyone who
needs it. This will be ready by Summer 1992.
As well as information about your rights and opportunities, you
may wish to know what information your landlord has about you.
* The Government is introducing the new Access to Personal Files
(Housing) (Scotland) Regulations. From early next year they will
give tenants and people who have applied for tenancies the right
to find out what information about them their landlord's housing
department has.
You are entitled to know what your landlord does with your rent
and with any Government grant received. An auditor examines the
accounts of each local authority and of other public sector
landlords every year. A local authority's auditor must
* be satisfied that any money paid out has been within the
law
* look at the way the money has been used
* answer any questions you ask about your council's account
* take account of nay information you provide.
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Good Practice
Many landlord manage their houses well. But some do not come up
to the best standards, which means their tenants are not getting
the service they deserve. For example, the number of empty houses
should be kept down to the minimum so that as many houses as
possible can be used for the homeless or to meet other housing
needs.
On the basis of research the Government will identify good
practice in
* tenant participation
* information for tenants
* repairs service
* allocations and lettings
* dealing with anti-social behaviour by tenants
* rent collection and arrears
* keeping the number of empty houses low.
The results will be published from Summer 1992 onwards. This will
help all landlords match the standards set by the best, so that
you get a better service as a tenant.
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Competition
Competition is a good way to improve the local services you
receive. Private contractors may be able to provide the housing
services you get from your landlord better and cheaper.
The Government will introduce new laws which will require local
authorities to ask other contractors whether they can do more
cheaply some of the things involved in managing your housing. The
new laws will make sure you have a say in deciding the sort of
services you want.
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If Things Go Wrong
If you have a complaint you should take it up with your landlord,
who should make it easy for you to make your point. There should
be a proper complaints procedure which should:
* be easy to understand
* be fair and impartial
* help to promote agreement wherever possible
* explain how claims for compensation are dealt with
* not conflict with your legal rights.
There are two particular ways to take your complaint further. If
you are a council tenant, or a tenant of Scottish Homes or of a
new Town Development Corporation, and your are not satisfied with
the way your landlord has dealt with your complaint, you can go
to the Local Government Ombudsman. He is Mr R G E Peggie CBE, and
can be contacted at 5 Shandwick Place, Edinburgh (telephone 031-
229 4472).
You can also go to the courts if you cannot resolve your
complaint. For most disputes with your landlord you should be
able to use the summary cause procedure. This provides a quick,
easy and relatively cheap way to settle disputes if you have to
go to court. You should get advice from a solicitor or from a
Citizens' Advice Bureau or another advice agency before taking a
case to court.
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The Way Forward
This Tenant's Charter outlines how tenants' rights can be
improved through the 1990s. But it is not the final word. It
should encourage you and your landlord to consult on how tenants'
rights and the services you receive can be developed even more.
The Government want each local authority - and other landlords -
to publish their own Tenant's Charter. These should be drawn up
with the full involvement of individual tenants and tenants'
organisations.
If you have any questions about this Charter, or any comments on
it, please contact John Aldridge, Room 404, St Andrew's House,
Edinburgh EH1 3DE, or telephone 031-244 2020 or 031-244 2024.
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