A home for a lifetime

We all want to feel secure in a forever home that we can make our own. Following the feedback and hard work of our Gateway Membership Team, we are ensuring our customers feel safe and secure at home by making lifetime assured tenancies our standard.

The Gateway Membership Team act as your representatives in the organisation The Gateway Membership Team is made up of tenants and individuals who are passionate about helping to improve services for residents. They are elected by Watford Community Housing members and make sure your voice is heard on many issues and aspects of our service.

In the case of new tenancies, the gateway membership team had voiced that making assured tenancies our standard would be in the best interests of customers. The tenancies we traditionally offered were rolling fixed-term contracts lasting 5 years at a time before being renewed. However, with an assured tenancy now as standard, this will mean your tenancy lasts a lifetime, avoiding the need for tenancy renewal, and saving customers the lack of security that comes with the need for renewal.

This new tenancy will apply to every household, aside from those who are in rent arrears and will have an impact on around 400 families on fixed-term tenancies who would have had a tenancy review over the next 5 years and also around 250 households who are currently on their starter tenancy period.

Through the GMT proposing this new standard, the lifetime tenancy will be able to ensure the security of your home, and make sure you feel safe and settled at home, for a lifetime.