Recognised Tenants' Associations and What They Can Do

Neighbourhood disputes and issues between neighbours have become more and more prevalent over recent years and there are always stories about bad neighbours and ‘neighbours from hell’ making the headlines.

If you live in an area that has a high proportion of rented properties, there will usually be a residents' and/or tenants' association that you can investigate if you need assistance.

Who can Set up a Tenants' Association?

Most residents'/tenants' associations are set up by the residents themselves, and many of these are officially recognised by the appropriate councils or housing associations, so this means that they work together to deal with any issues that might arise on particular developments or areas.

Councils and housing associations will all have their own strategies in place which are designed to support these recognised tenants' organisations, and they are normally keen to encourage their tenants to join in and be a part of any decision-making processes.

How are Residents' Associations Funded?

You will need to be able to raise the money to run your association, to pay for expenses like meeting refreshments and room hire, any publicity, and other expenses. You could fund this by charging a membership fee, a meeting fee or by creating fundraising activities. In some cases, you can obtain funding for a recognised association from the council, the housing association or even the National Lottery's Big Lottery Fund.

What Rights Does a Tenants' Association Have?

The advantages of being a part of a tenants' organisation is that it gives you a heads up on any plans or decisions that might affect your neighbourhood. These have rights to consultation cover subjects such as:

• Housing conditions
• Provision of housing services
• Proposed changes to neighbourhood/housing management policies
• Stock transfer

How Do I Register a Residents'/Tenants' Association?

All councils and housing associations are obliged to keep a register of any residents’ and tenants' associations. If you have formed an association with your neighbours, you can apply to join this register, providing that some members of the association are council or housing association tenants. To do this, get in touch with your local council housing department or contact the relevant housing association office.

To register you must have:

• An agreed constitution
• Appointed officers, a chairperson and treasurer
• Regular meetings (which must include an annual general meeting)
• Agreed accounts
• Open membership for tenants and leaseholders.

The procedures that you will have to follow differ between councils and associations, but you should be able to get this information from your local council or housing association.

What if We are Leaseholders?

Any residents' association set up solely to represent leaseholders must write to the freeholder of the properties for recognition. If the freeholder does not respond or refuses to recognise your association, you can apply to Rent Assessment Panel for recognition.

As with a housing association or council recognised tenants’ association, a recognised leaseholders’ association has rights to consultation about their service charges, choice of managing agents, and any other decisions that may affect them as residents.

Mobile Homes, Parks and House Boats

Yes, there are avenues open for all of the above to form and register their own residents' associations. It makes a lot of sense to join or create an association for residents if you live on a mobile home park or house boat because generally your rights tend to be weaker than those of building tenants or homeowners.

Protected park home residents are able to form what’s called a qualifying residents' association. If you have one of these already, join it because it means that the park owner is bound to consult the association on some important decisions relating to the way the park is managed and run.

To qualify for recognition, the association needs to include at least half of the park home residents and exclude the park owner and any of the park staff.