Rent

At Legal & General Affordable Homes, your rent is charged on a monthly basis. Depending on the type of tenancy or lease you have you may also have a service charge to pay.

To check what your current rent amount is, please contact your Management Provider who will be able to confirm your total rent charge. This is always listed in our lease or tenancy, however if you have lived in your home for typically more than one year, this is likely to have changed to due our annual rent review in April each year.

You can pay your rent and service charges in two ways:

1. By setting up a direct debit so that the money comes out of your back account each month on the same date.  This is the best way to pay and ensures your account is always up to date. You can set this up directly with your Management Provider.

• By making a direct payment online or by contacting your Management Provider. Depending on who your Management Provider is, they will provide a range of options for rent and service charge payments.

Usually you will require your unique reference number to make a rent or service charge payment. This is usually written on your rent statement. If you don’t have a copy of your latest rent statement you can contact your Management Provider to confirm this.

If you are having problems paying your rent or service charges please get in touch with your Management Provider they can talk through things with you. talk things through. There will also be helpful local agencies who can offer advice and support, and your local Council website will have information on these key local services.

Please don’t ignore any reminders we send you to pay your rent and service charges otherwise we might take legal action to recover the debt.

If you are a rented customer your rent pays for:

• Repairs to your home and surrounding neighbourhood
• Improvements to your home, such as new bathrooms and kitchens
• The costs of running our business

If you are a shared owner, your rent is the based on the percentage of the property which is still owned by Legal & General Affordable Homes. This will change if you purchase more of your home.

Any changes to your rent are effective from the rent review date specified in your tenancy agreement or lease unless otherwise notified.

Your rent will be recalculated based on the method stated in your tenancy agreement or lease and this is usually in line with the specific inflation rate which will be stated in your contract.

This can sometimes change if the Government decides on a different amount. In all cases, we will let you know if writing of any chances at least one month in advance.

Some residents pay service charges for the property they live in. Some rented customers do not pay a separate service charge as these are included in the total monthly rent charge.

A service charge is a charge for a service provided to the communal parts of a neighbourhood or building and are shared with other properties in a building or on a neighbourhood.

Your service charges are called ‘variable’ service charges. The expected cost of providing the service is split between the properties receiving the service on the neighbourhood or in the building.

Service charges are estimated at the beginning of each financial year based on the cost of our contracts and estimated spend on some services, such as electricity. Service charge budgets are prepared carefully to make sure that they are realistic and reasonable.

We send you a summary of our expenditure within six months after the end of the financial period, which  shows you if there is an over or under charge.

We provide a wide range of services. The services we provide differ depending on where you live and the local facilities available. In addition, some services are not charged to some rented tenants as legislation prevents us from charging these.

Here are a few examples of the services that may be included in your service charge:

• Fire safety protection
• Cleaning and window cleaning
• Lift maintenance
• Door entry maintenance
• Gardening of communal areas
• Lighting in communal areas
• TV and digital aerials
• Management fee.

This list is not exhaustive, the service charge will included costs for services delivered to your neighbourhood or building and these may differ from another neighbourhood or building.

All our rented homes are let through the relevant Local Authority for that home. If you are looking to move, you will need to apply to be added to the Local Authority housing register and you will then be able to apply for any Legal & General Affordable Homes property will become available.

Yes you can. This is known as ‘staircasing’.

When you buy more shares in your home, your home is re-valued and you buy the shares at the current market value, at the time you are buying the shares. Most homes allow you to staircase up to 100% ownership, but there are some which have a maximum staircase threshold of 80%. Usually you will be aware of this during the sales process, and your lease will have more details about any restrictions.

If you do decide that you want to move on, you will need to let us know. There is a time period specific within your lease where we need to directly offer the property to another eligible shared owner. If we are unable to source a suitable purchaser in this  time, you can put the property on the open market.

As a Legal & General Affordable Homes customer you have free access to www.homeswapper.co.uk. This is a national scheme so you are able to search for properties across England. You will need to have passed your 12 month probation period before you can progress with a mutual exchange application, however you can begin searching before this date.

A mutual exchange is when you ‘swap’ your home with other social housing tenant and you take on each other’s tenancy terms. Once you have found a suitable home, you can let your Management Provider know who will then discuss next steps.  

As part of your tenancy conditions, are you required to give us one months’ notice should you want to leave your home. In order to do this you can contact your Management Provider and they will let you know how to do this.

You are able to take in a lodger but you must ask our permission before doing so as we need to check that this does not cause any tenancy issues such as overcrowding. We also require their personal details so ensure we have an up to date record of who is living in your home.

You are not allowed to sublet your home. Please note that should you do this, this would be a breach of your tenancy conditions and it may put your tenancy at risk.

You may be able to buy your rented home, but there is a specific criteria on which properties are eligible as part of Right to Acquire legislation. For more information you can visit Right to Acquire: buying your housing association home: Overview – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and if you want to find out more please contact your Management Provider.  

We take all reports of anti-social behaviour seriously and we will work with you to ensure the most appropriate action is taken to try and resolve the issue.

Should you want to raise a new anti-social behaviour case, you can do this by visiting your Management Providers website and filling in an online form, or by ringing them directly. A member of their team will then be touch to discuss the issue further.

If there is any immediate risk please contact the Police on 999.

If you do share your name with us, your details will always remain confidential unless you give us permission to disclose them. If you prefer, you can decide not to provide your name, but this means we would not be able to update you on what action we are taking. It may also limit the action we can take.

Your tenancy or lease will usually explain if you are allowed pets. If you are  shared owner, some leases require written permission from us before taking in pets so it’s best to read your lease terms. Please also note that any permissions provided will be subject to certain conditions such as the pet not being dangerous to others, causing a noise or other disturbances

There is a legal process in order to remove a person from your lease or tenancy. If this is a household member and they are not included in your contract document with us then you are able to progress with this by contacting your Management Provider.

If you are a shared owner you will need to instruct a solicitor to act on your behalf to remove someone else from your lease. Please note that until this has been completed, all current leaseholders would be legally responsible for the property and any amounts due for it.

For renters we do not usually add additional people onto the tenancy before the fixed-term tenancy review. When your tenancy does come up for renewal, at this stage we can review if you would like to add someone onto your tenancy.

For shared owners this is a  a legal procedure and you would need to instruct solicitors to act on your behalf to add someone else to your lease.

Your contract terms will explain what repairs you are specifically responsible for.

If you are a shared owner, you will be generally responsible for all repairs, other than those covered by our building insurance.

If you need to change your appointment it is best to ring your Management Provider to let them know. We appreciate as much notice as possible to ensure we can rebook any appointment promptly.

It’s important to ensure you are at home if you have made an appointment for us to attend to sort out a problem. If you can’t make the appointment, even on the day please do let your Management Provider know straight away by calling them directly.

If you are not at home when a contractor visits, they will leave a card to let you know that they came and how to get in touch to rebook.

Please note, that if you do regularly miss appointments you may be recharged for the cost of attending.

Living in a newly build home there may be restriction to the amount of alterations you can make. Internal decoration is fine, but if you want to make any major changes to your home, such as altering the layout or creating an extension this will need our permission.

The best way to check this is by contacting your Management Provider, and by viewing our policy on alterations under the Policy section.

As you live in a newly build home, there are usually planning restrictions which prevents you from installed a satellite to the front of your home.

Your Home User Guide will give more information about this, and it is best to check with your Management Provider before you agree an installation to avoid further costs later if the dish needs to be removed.  

If your home is outside of its 12 month defect period, you will be responsible for your own repairs. We recommend using a suitably qualified tradesperson to ensure the repair is completed to a good standard.