Assured tenancy
If you are moving in to a self-contained home, you will be given an assured tenancy. You should read your tenancy agreement carefully and ensure you keep it safe.

Assured Shorthold tenancy
If you are moving in to a shared home, you will be started on a 6 months assured shorthold tenancy. If there are no problems at the end of 6 months, you will then be given an assured tenancy. If we have any doubts (for example, you haven't paid your rent regularly) we will give you another 6 months tenancy and review the situation just before this ends. If there are problems, for example rent arrears or proven anti-social behaviour, you will be given notice to end the tenancy. If there are no problems, you will be given an assured tenancy.

This page explains your rights under the assured tenancy agreement. Please contact the housing manager if you have any queries.

Tenants Charter
The Charter for Housing Association Applicants and Residents details the rights and service an assured tenant can expect from their landlord. It sets out good practice guidelines and standards of service that all housing associations have to follow. The charter is issued by the Housing Corporation and tells you what to do if you are being denied your rights. A copy can be found in your new tenants pack.

Your security
You have security of tenure in your home as long as you occupy the premises as your only or principal home. This means that your tenancy can only be brought to an end by an order from the court. If there is a serious breach of your tenancy agreement and there is no alternative, then CHISEL may have no choice but to start legal proceedings.

There are several stages to this:

• First we will have to serve you with a written notice of seeking possession, stating why we are taking legal action.
• The 'grounds' (reasons) we can use are listed in your tenancy agreement and they include rent arrears, serious nuisance and damage to the property.
• After the notice expires we can then apply to the court for a possession order. In some cases this will be a suspended or postponed order, to give the tenant a final opportunity to keep their home, but the terms of the order have to be followed.

Can I be evicted?
After we obtain a possession order from the court, if there is no other solution, we will obtain a bailiff's warrant and evict the tenant. CHISEL will always seek to resolve matters first without having to resort to eviction. However, eviction will occur if there is no co-operation from a tenant and agreements have been broken.