Your tenancy agreement (pdf document) is a legal document that confirms your status as a tenant of Tendring District Council. It also explains your rights and responsibilities. The type of tenancy that you have will be explained to you before you are asked to sign the tenancy agreement. We will also tell you about the circumstances in which we can disclose any future forwarding address to the utility companies (for example, if you leave the property owing your gas or electricity supplier any money).

We use a number of different types of tenancy types and a summary of each of these is given below.

No matter which type of tenancy you have (secure, introductory, demoted or non secure), this will be a weekly periodic tenancy. This means that it automatically continues from one rental week to another unless or until it is ended by the tenant or landlord by service of the prescribed or statutory notice and subsequent court order.

Secure tenancy

• Secure council tenants can only be evicted in certain circumstances;
• you can take in a lodger and may be able to pass on your tenancy, exchange your home or buy at a discount;
• we have to carry out most repairs; and
• we should consult you about how your home is managed.

Introductory tenancy

• An introductory tenancy is a one year trial;
• it gives you a number of the same rights as a secure tenant but you can be evicted more easily;
• you do not have the right to take in lodgers, make improvements to your home or exchange your home with another tenant;
• we have to carry out most repairs;
• as long as you don't break your tenancy agreement during this one year trial period, you will automatically become a secure tenant.

You can find out more by reading a summary of the differences (pdf document) between secure and introductory tenancies.

Demoted tenancy

• Secure council tenancies can be downgraded to a demoted tenancy if you have behaved anti socially or threatened to do so or used your home for illegal activities;
• demoted tenancies are very similar to introductory tenancies and normally act as a one year trial period;
• you will have more limited rights and less protection from eviction that a secure tenant for example you will not have the right to take in lodgers or buy your home;
• we will carry out most repairs;
• as long as you don't cause a nuisance or break your tenancy agreement in other ways during this trial period, you should automatically become a secure tenant again after twelve months.

Non secure tenancy

• You will normally have a non secure tenancy if you made an application to us as homeless and you do not yet qualify for a different type of tenancy;
• non secure tenancies have limited rights for example you will not have the right to take in lodgers or transfer to another property;
• you will have more limited protection from eviction;
• we will carry out most repairs;
• you will normally keep this type of tenancy until we arrange more settled accommodation, which may be an introductory tenancy at the same property at a later date.

You can download the free adobe reader needed to view the above pdf documents.