Lister tenants respond to Housing Act mailing

Over 41% of tenants at Lister Housing Co-operative have checked and returned their

‘Household Details’ form by 1 November 2018. On this date, the one-year period of residency starts for tenants wishing to request certain changes to their tenancy from 1 November 2019.

The Housing (Scotland) Act 2014 introduces certain tenancy agreement changes, which are only coming into effect in May and November 2019. All RSLs in Scotland were urged by the Scottish Government to advise all of their tenants of these changes - a unilateral change in everyone’s agreements.

To communicate these changes, Lister sent pre-populated ‘Household Details’ forms to all of its tenants, with supporting information based on a model letter and leaflet from SFHA. In addition, a newsletter was issued with more information and an FAQ section on the topic.

Lister asked for all tenants to check, sign and return their forms, even if there were no changes.

Alistair Cant, Lister Director, said:

“We would love to get 100% but realistically this, we feel, is a reasonable rate so far.

By pre-populating the form we notify our tenants of the information we hold, so if anyone does have a query with it, they can respond. We feel we are more likely to get a response that way, compared to sending a blank form.

“We are pleased these important tenancy changes are finally going to be introduced. The changes implicitly recognise how valuable a social housing tenancy is to society and better balances the needs of the housed and those seeking housing.”

For further information on the changes and to download the SFHA templates, please visit the SFHA website.