Tenancy agreements – your views

We want to propose a change to the way we manage new tenancy agreements in future. Before we do this, we would like to know whether or not you support these proposals.

To get involved and have your say on this consultation, please review the information below about both our starter and fixed term tenancies and then complete the short survey. Your feedback will help shape our services.

Starter Tenancy Proposal:

Starter tenancies are issued to the majority of our new tenants for an initial 12 month period. Upon successful completion of the starter tenancy, tenants are then issued with a longer term tenancy.

These two tenancies are separate and this means that the tenant needs to meet with Paradigm to sign a new tenancy agreement at the end of the first year.

Our proposal is to merge these so that only one tenancy agreement is issued to tenants. This new agreement would contain a 12 month starter tenancy period which would then automatically continue to become a longer term tenancy, so long as Paradigm had not served notice to end the tenancy within the first 12 months due to a tenancy breach.

This change would mean that it would not be necessary for tenants to meet with Paradigm to sign a second agreement and that in effect, the tenancy would automatically ‘roll over’ to a more permanent arrangement. It would also give customers who are keeping to the terms of their tenancy agreement a greater sense of security from the beginning.

Fixed Term Tenancy Proposal:

Paradigm currently issue five year fixed term tenancies (FTT) to the majority of our tenants following the successful completion of a 12 month starter tenancy.

We introduced fixed term tenancies with the aim of making the most efficient use of our housing stock, to reduce under occupation and increase the ability to target social housing to those most in need.

However, a review of FTTs at Paradigm has shown they have not made a significant impact on how we manage our housing stock. In addition, the use of FTTs can create unnecessary instability for residents and households seeking long term security. It also requires a significant amount of administrative time to review FTTs at the end of their term, every 5 years.

Our proposal is to stop the use of five year fixed term tenancies and instead issue assured (commonly known as ‘lifetime’) tenancies to our residents at the end of their 12 month starter tenancy.

Note: We have a small number of specialist housing schemes (for example, learning disability supported schemes) where it may be appropriate to offer two year fixed term tenancies instead of assured tenancies. In these limited cases, Paradigm will continue to have the discretion to issue two year fixed term tenancies where this is deemed appropriate.

Complete the survey and let us know your views: