Decent Homes Standard

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The Government sets standards and laws that cover the condition of your homes as a tenant. These include meeting set standards of decency and homes being fit to live in. ForHousing is responsible for making sure your home is safe, healthy, and free from things that could cause you or anyone living in your home serious harm.

We want to provide safe, well maintained, sustainable and affordable homes for all of our tenants. Key criteria for these are set out in the Government Decent Homes Standard including the Housing Health and Safety Rating System and the Homes Fitness for Human Habitation Act.

Home health checks
One of the ways we invest to keep your home in good repair is by checking that it continues to meet these standards – we do this by carrying out full internal surveys of each home at least every five years. This makes sure that your home is safe, well maintained, and in good condition now and in the future. If your home is selected, we’ll contact you directly to arrange a visit.

Find out what a home health check involves

If you’re unhappy with the safety of your home, we hope that you will work with us by requesting we take action to remove any hazard and allowing us access into your home to fix it. We always want to listen to you and resolve any issues you may have, but if you’re still unhappy with our services, please complete our complaints form by clicking the button below. You may also contact your local Council who may be able to assist you.

Complete a complaint form here

If something isn’t working as it should or if you’re worried about the condition of your home, let us know as soon as possible so we can put things right.

Report a repair online here

Reasonable access

When repairing a home, we should usually give you at least 24 hours’ notice, and the visit should be within ‘reasonable’ hours. For most tenants, this means not too late at night, and not too early in the morning.

We would advise you to keep a record of all the letters, phone calls, emails, texts, and other contact from us if you feel you need to show that you weren’t given reasonable notice.

We understand and respond to the different needs of individuals

We are committed to providing you with accessible information about your rights and our responsibilities as your landlord. This includes our responsibilities for your homes and other facilities and services we provide.

We know that one size does not fit all, and our aim is to understand the diverse needs of our tenants, so we can deliver people-centred services that put you first. This includes making changes, often called reasonable adjustments, to the services we provide where these do not meet your needs – for example, owing to a different need related to a disability. This helps ensure that none of our tenants are disadvantaged by how we do things and that our services are delivered equally and fairly to you all.

If you need a reasonable adjustment when contacting us or using our services, please let us know.

Further information is available in the Guide for tenants: Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018 found online here