Here you will find useful information relating to your home and your tenancy agreement.
Tenancy Team
The Tenancy Team work across all BCHA properties to provide a Housing Management service to all of our customers.
We visit people every day within their homes and work hard to give all of our customers great services. We can work with you to help you maintain your tenancy or licence agreement and can support you at any point.
Contact us
The Tenancy Team are based in four BCHA Hubs and can be contacted by location of your home:
Dorset and surrounding area
Call: 01202 410500
Plymouth, Devon
Call: 01752 664441
Yeovil, Somerset
Call: 01935 411618
Exeter & South Hams, Devon
Call: 01392 258899
Alternatively you can contact Customer Services on 01202 410500.
Your Tenancy Team work together with other BCHA departments in order to provide help and assistance for you to maintain your Tenancy or Licence Agreements and live in a safe and comfortable home.
Types of Tenancy
There are two types of tenancy that you can have with us at BCHA; General Needs and Supported Housing.
General Needs homes are for people who are eligible for social housing, but don’t have additional support needs. Our experienced Tenancy Team support people to maintain their tenancies, and provide additional assistance when tenants find it difficult to pay their rent or need help with neighbour difficulties.
Our General Needs homes are located mainly around Dorset, but also in Somerset, Wiltshire, Hampshire and Devon.
Customers within General Needs will have signed a Starter Tenancy or Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement.
If you would like help understanding your Agreement, you can contact your local Tenancy Team who can help and provide you with this information
Customers who are in our Supported Housing Schemes and have signed an Excluded Licence Agreement have access to additional services, including an Intensive Housing Management Service.
You will receive support by your dedicated team which can include:
- Individual risk assessments to ensure all support needs are met
- Regular welfare checks to ensure your safety and well-being
- Sign-posting and referral to external support providers, such as receiving support for alcohol/substance misuse
- Support in accessing Domestic Abuse services
- Support in finding, applying for and moving to a permanent home
Not all our customers that receive support and intensive housing management are on an Excluded Licence Agreement.
If you are unsure about which type of tenancy you have, please contact your Tenancy Team for more details.
Rights & Responsibilities
All of our customers in both our General Needs Housing and our Supported Housing Schemes have the same rights to a service from BCHA which are outlined below.
- Receive information about our charges and how we deliver services
- Ask for a copy of any BCHA policies and procedures which affect you
- Be consulted when we plan to change the way we provide your service, or want to know what you think about the service
- Be involved in the decision making about your service
- Be compensated, in some cases, if we agree that you’ve received bad service from us
- Appeal against certain decisions that we make
- Privacy and confidentiality, except where someone is at risk of harm or a crime may have been committed
- Have a choice where options are available, and to make your own decisions
- Refuse, or end the services we offer, in line with your legal and other obligations
- Respectful, fair and courteous treatment from our staff
- Receive our service without abuse or harassment from others
- Respect our staff and other customers. Harassment, violence, threats, racist behaviour and vandalism are not acceptable
- Comply with any rules or requirements of the service we are providing to you
- Provide us with true information regarding your circumstances
See the Repairs and Maintenance section for further information on how to look after your home.
Environmental Services
The service charges which you pay as part of your tenancy agreement help to pay for a number of services provided to you.
Your Tenancy Team, working alongside our Repairs Team, is responsible for maintaining the cleanliness and safety of the communal areas such as courtyards, lobbies and communal stairways.
BCHA will be responsible for:
- Ensuring weeds, hedge growth and gardening are maintained
- Check communal lighting
- Report repairs needed in the communal areas
- Report fly tipping for removal
- Ensure any shared laundry services are clean and safe
A detailed specification of services provided to your block is available upon request.
BCHA are not responsible for the collection of general waste or recycling. This collection is managed by your Local Authority.
Fly tipping is waste that has been illegally left on land without the owner’s permission. This is usually white goods, furniture, garden waste, large packaging, or any items that can’t fit into bins provided.
Please report fly tipping if you see it happening. Not only is it an offence and may be in breach of their tenancy, they’re making the area you live in look unsightly and spoiling the quality of life for you and your neighbours.
If you have bulky waste that needs collecting;
- Check your local authority website to see if they provide a bulky waste service
- Take it to your local waste recycling centre
We don’t pick up bulky items.
As landowners, BCHA has a legal responsibility to manage all trees to ensure the safety of tenants, members of the public, staff and contractors.
We will manage and maintain all trees situated on BCHA owned communal land. Our tenants have a responsibility and a duty to maintain any tree stock growing on land covered by their tenancy.
Contents Insurance
Contents insurance is designed to help protect your possessions. No matter how careful you are, there’s always a risk that your belongings could be broken, damaged or stolen. Home contents insurance can help provide peace of mind should any of this happen.
We do not cover your contents as part of the tenancy agreement so it’s a good idea to consider what a home contents insurance policy would cover you for in order to make an informed decision on whether you need one.
The National Housing Federation works in partnership with Thistle Tenant Risks, who provide My Home Contents Insurance. The My Home scheme is designed for tenants and residents living in social housing, offering economical and flexible schemes to protect tenants against a whole range of risks.
Thistle Tenant Risks is a leading provider; developing tenant contents insurance schemes in the social housing sector for over twenty years and working with in excess of 700 housing associations and local authorities.
Some benefits to having contents insurance include:
- No excess to pay, meaning you don’t pay the first part of the claim
- Covers theft, water damage, fire and many more household risks
- Covers tenants’ improvements
- Covers contents in sheds, outbuildings and garages
- Covers damage to external glazing for which you are responsible
- Covers replacement and installation of locks for outside doors or windows and alarms, if keys are lost or stolen
There is no need to have special door or window locks to have a contents insurance policy and all postcodes in the UK can be covered.
Pets
We recognise that pet ownership is a rewarding experience, bringing companionship, good health and social benefits to a growing number of people.
You may be able to keep a pet, although this will depend on the type of property that you live in or be based on certain circumstances.
Generally, residents who live in a property with exclusive use of a garden may keep any domestic pet including up to two cats and two dogs. Residents who do not have exclusive use of a garden may keep pets which reasonably stay in the home such as caged birds, fish in a tank or small non-poisonous caged reptiles.
If you would like to keep a pet in your home, please seek our permission first by contacting your Tenancy Officer.
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