6 Your home and surroundings Section 6 page 1. Your home and surroundings. 6.1 Emergencies. 6.2 Safety. 6.3 Insurance. 6.4 Security. 6.

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1 6 Your home and surroundings 6.1 Emergencies What shoud I do if there is a fire? What shoud I do if I sme gas? 6.2 Safety Can I use fammabe materias, such as botted gas or paraffin? Shoud a staff carry identification? 6.3 Insurance Is my home insured? Do I need to insure the contents of my home? My home contents insurance scheme 6.4 Security What happens if I ose my keys or they are stoen? Can I get hep with security for my home? 6.5 My garden Am I responsibe for maintaining my garden? I am edery or disabed can I get hep with my garden? Can I pant trees and arge shrubs in my garden? Can I chop down any bushes, hedges or trees in my garden? 6.6 Rubbish 6.7 Pets 6 Your home and surroundings Section 6 page 1

2 6.8 You and your neighbours What if I am having a dispute with my neighbour? What is anti-socia behaviour? What is nuisance? Noisy neighbours are disturbing me what can I do? What is harassment? Our poicy on harassment I am being harassed what can I do? What if a tenant s chid or a tenant s friend is harassing me? Wi I need to give evidence in court if you take ega action? If I am experiencing vioence in my home, can you hep? What about vioence to Raven staff? Where do I report suspected drug-deaing? What shoud I do if I am a victim of a hate incident? 6.9 Your surroundings Communa areas Who is responsibe for ceaning the communa areas in my bock of fats? Can I eave my bike or pushchair on the communa anding? Estate areas Who is responsibe for ooking after the andscaping in my area? Who is responsibe for ooking after the pay areas? Cars and parking Can I park my car in the street outside my home? What if I see a vehice parked dangerousy or inconsideratey? Are arge commercia vehices aowed to be parked on estate roads? What if an untaxed vehice is parked on the road? What if an untaxed vehice is parked on an estate car park? Where do I report an abandoned vehice? Section 6 page 2 Your home and surroundings 6

3 Wi you provide me with a hardstanding to park my car? Can I buid my own hardstanding? Can I park my car in my garden without a hardstanding? A neighbour appears to be running a car-repair business from their home what can be done? Can I repair my car on the road outside my home? Can I rent a garage from Raven? Parking enforcement Can we have resident-ony parking restrictions in my area? 6 Your home and surroundings Section 6 page 3

4 Everyone shoud expect to be abe to ive peacefuy in their home. In areas where there are many chidren or young peope, or in bocks of fats, it is sometimes unavoidabe that things may cause disruption, nuisance or upset to other tenants or residents, usuay unintentionay. Most peope want the pace where they ive to be cean, safe and free from nuisance. This section is about what you can do to hep achieve that and what you can do if things go wrong. 6.1 Emergencies If you need the poice or an ambuance, dia 999 straight away do not contact us first. What shoud I do if there is a fire? Leave the property immediatey and then ca the fire brigade dia 999. Pease aso refer to Chapter 10: Advice on emergency aarms, fire safety and fire prevention What shoud I do if I sme gas? If you sme gas, take the foowing precautions immediatey: do not switch any ights, sockets or appiances on or off put out any cigarettes and do not ight any naked fames, such as ighters or matches if you can, turn off your gas suppy using the ever next to your gas meter eave your home and ca the Nationa Grid Gas Emergency Service (formery Transco) on (freephone). Pease te us what has happened as soon as you can. Section 6 page 4 Your home and surroundings 6

5 6.2 Safety Be prepared for emergencies make sure you know where the foowing are in your home: Your water stop tap stop taps (or stopcocks) are in different paces in different homes, but they are usuay under the kitchen sink or in the airing cupboard. Make sure you know where your stop tap is. If you can t find it, contact your community housing manager. You can cut off your water suppy, and so stop a eak, by turning the stop tap cockwise. Your gas-suppy ever this is aways at the side of or above the gas meter. Turn the ever cockwise to turn off your gas. The gas is off when the ine of the hande is across the pipe Your mains eectricity switch and fuses these are in the eectricity-meter cupboard. Check what sort of fuses you have and keep a suppy of spares. If you have difficuty finding any of these, pease contact your community housing manager. Can I use fammabe materias, such as botted gas or paraffin? If you ive in a fat or maisonette, you must not use any kind of heaters fueed by iquid petroeum gas (LPG), petro, caor gas or paraffin. For a tenants, you must not keep more than two 15kg bottes of LPG or five itres of paraffin or petro in your home at any one time. If you do store fammabe substances in your home, pease take care to minimise the risk of fire and exposions. Shoud a staff carry identification? Yes a staff and any contractors working for us carry identification (ID). 6 Your home and surroundings Section 6 page 5

6 You shoud not et anyone into your home uness you can check their identity. If you are not sure about a visitor, pease contact our office or the poice. 6.3 Insurance Is my home insured? Yes we are responsibe for insuring the structure of your home but not the contents such as furniture, carpets, persona possessions, appiances or decorations. Do I need to insure the contents of my home? Yes it is a condition of your tenancy that you insure your persona possessions against oss or damage caused by fire, food, theft, accident, etc. We wi not be iabe if your possessions are damaged in an accident or stoen in a burgary. My home contents insurance scheme It is your responsibiity to insure your persona possessions and to find an insurance company and scheme that suits your needs. Affordabe home contents insurance is avaiabe from the Nationa Housing Federation with Jardine Loyd Thompson. The scheme is caed My home contents insurance. The scheme offers: instant cover avaiabe over the phone affordabe premiums cash payouts as we as traditiona payment methods no minimum security requirements for the property no excess so you do not pay the first part of the caim cover for ow amounts an exceent caims service. Section 6 page 6 Your home and surroundings 6

7 For more about the scheme ca or emai: The Nationa Housing Federation My Home Contents Insurance scheme is arranged and administered on behaf of The Nationa Housing Federation by Jardine Loyd Thompson Tenants Risks. This is a division of Jardine Loyd Thompson UK Ltd, Loyd s Broker, authorised and reguated by the Financia Services Authority and a member of the Jardine Loyd Thompson Group. Registered office: 6 Crutched Friars, London EC3N 2PH. We strongy recommend that you aso buy third-party insurance. This wi cover you if you damage someone ese s property or beongings. For exampe, you may accidentay damage the andord s fixtures and fittings or you might eave a tap running and food your neighbours home. You woud be responsibe for putting right the damage, and third-party insurance woud pay for this. 6.4 Security What happens if I ose my keys or they are stoen? You are responsibe for the keys to your home and the keys to any door-entry system. We do not hod a spare set of keys to your home and we wi not pay for repacements if you ose them. We can repace your door-entry keys or fobs but we wi charge you for them. If you ock yoursef out and, as a resut, ask us to ca out a ocksmith to et you back in, we wi send you the bi. Can I get hep with security for my home? Ony if you have been the victim of a crime. We wi fit a security chain, spy hoe and window ocks to the ground foor of your home. We may consider other measures if the poice recommend them. 6 Your home and surroundings Section 6 page 7

8 6.5 My garden Am I responsibe for maintaining my garden? Yes if you have soe use of a garden attached to your home, you must take reasonabe care to prevent it becoming overgrown or untidy. If you et it become an eyesore or a nuisance to neighbours, we wi decide what work shoud be done and, if you do not do the work, we may get a contractor to cear your garden and send you the bi. I am edery or disabed can I get hep with my garden? If you can t maintain your garden, and don t have anyone under pensionabe age iving with you who coud do your garden for you, we wi try to provide some hep for you. If you need hep, pease contact your community housing manager. Can I pant trees and arge shrubs in my garden? Yes but you must keep them trimmed and pruned so that they do not cause damage to property (such as root damage), or become a nuisance to your neighbours (eg by bocking ight). Pease contact your community housing manager before you start panting some trees or arge shrubs can cause damage to the property or make it difficut for us to access your property to carry out maintenance. Can I chop down any bushes, hedges or trees in my garden? Yes but pease get written permission from us first. Some trees have preservation orders. These restrict what you are aowed to do to them. Section 6 page 8 Your home and surroundings 6

9 6.6 Rubbish You are responsibe for getting rid of a your rubbish in an appropriate way. If your oca counci operates a wheeed bin and recycing house-to-house service, you must foow its rues about what you can put in each type of bin. If you use a rubbish chute, pease be considerate of others and see our eafet Recycing and waste, which gives guideines on using it. If you have rubbish that the refuse coectors wi not coect, you must take it to your oca amenity site. Fy-tipping is a breach of your tenancy conditions and Raven wi take action against anyone responsibe. For fu detais on rubbish and recycing pease refer to our eafet Recycing and waste. 6.7 Pets You must appy to us for permission to keep a pet pease see beow: If you rent your home, your tenancy agreement wi te you if you are aowed to keep a pet. Pease read it to find out whether you need to appy to us for permission. In some Raven homes it s not aowed, for exampe temporary accommodation schemes, The Dome, Merrick House, Aton House and some shetered schemes. If you have permission to keep a pet and are moving to another Raven home, you wi need to re-appy for permission. You do not need permission to keep a pet if you: ive in a rented house with its own garden or have direct access to the road and want to keep one cat or dog have an assistance dog, such as a guide or hearing dog 6 Your home and surroundings Section 6 page 9

10 keep up to five sma birds or up to five sma caged rodents (hamsters, mice or gerbis ony) keep up to five fish. You need our permission to keep most other types of pet, incuding: cats dogs repties insects arger rodents (such as guinea pigs and rabbits) more than five fish, and more than five sma birds or sma caged rodents. We may not grant permission:...your tenancy conditions give you the right to keep one domestic pet. for a cat or dog if you don t have a private garden or if your bock has a communa entry area. Pets are not aowed to run free in communa areas if your househod aready has a probem with pet ownership or there has been a probem in the past if we think the pet is unsuitabe for the size and type of your home. We wi decide this on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the wefare of the pet you are appying to keep and using guidance from such organisations as the Pet Advisory Committee ( for more than one pet and permission wi ony be granted for the ifetime of that pet. You must get permission from Raven before you fit a cat or dog fap as these can be a fire risk. Section 6 page 10 Your home and surroundings 6

11 6.8 You and your neighbours Your tenancy agreement gives you the right to ive in your home without interference from us or your neighbours, so ong as you keep to the terms of your agreement and respect the rights of other tenants and neighbours. Basicay, you shoud treat your neighbours as you woud ike to be treated yoursef, which means respecting their need for privacy, peace and quiet. What if I am having a dispute with my neighbour? You shoud try to resove it between yourseves. If you are unabe to do so, the East Surrey Community Mediation Service may be abe to hep you. They are an independent, vountary organisation whose workers are trained to hep neighbours resove their disputes. Their address is: PO Box 187 Reigate Surrey RH2 0FT. Our poicy for deaing with anti-socia behaviour and neighbour nuisance is to act quicky and firmy and not to take sides in any dispute. What is anti-socia behaviour? Anti-socia behaviour is behaviour that goes against society s accepted standards. This can incude crimina acts and annoying behaviour, such as dumping rubbish. What is nuisance? Nuisance is behaviour that unreasonaby interferes with other peope s rights to use and enjoy their home and community. This can incude paying music oudy at night. The term nuisance has ega status, which means that the aw recognises it as a reason for a andord to seek possession of property, and a court can order a statutory nuisance to be stopped. 6 Your home and surroundings Section 6 page 11

12 Noisy neighbours are disturbing me what can I do? Compaints about anti socia behaviour or neighbour nuisance can be reported to your community housing manager, our customer services team, or via our website. We wi investigate your compaint and, if appropriate, we wi take reasonabe steps to prevent the behaviour happening again. We may ask you to keep a diary of nuisance or disturbances, which coud be used as evidence in court if we decide to take ega action. You may need to attend court to give evidence as a witness. In appropriate cases, we may use professiona witnesses (independent peope such as poice officers, who gather evidence). What is harassment? Harassment is different from nuisance. Harassment is behaviour that is intended to cause annoyance or distress to others, usuay repeatedy. Racia harassment can be physica or verba abuse, racist graffiti, or intimidation on the grounds of a person s ethnic origin, race, coour or reigion. Sexua harassment is doing anything to make you fee uncomfortabe or unsafe on grounds of your gender or sexua orientation. Disabiity harassment is doing anything to make you fee uncomfortabe or unsafe on grounds of your disabiity. Our poicy on harassment Our poicy states that we wi not toerate harassment and wi act quicky and effectivey against a forms of harassment. We wi take immediate ega action against anyone who physicay or verbay abuses or intimidates you, your famiy or visitors, or members of staff. Section 6 page 12 Your home and surroundings 6

13 I am being harassed what can I do? Harassment is a crimina offence. Contact the poice and your community housing manager. If the person harassing you is a Raven tenant and we have evidence of the harassment, we wi take ega action against them for breaking their tenancy agreement. We wi work cosey with the poice on these cases. What if a tenant s chid or a tenant s friend is harassing me? A tenant is responsibe for the behaviour of their famiy and their visitors. It may be possibe for us or the poice to get a court order stopping the person harassing you. We coud aso take the tenant to court and ask for possession of their home, athough the court woud ony agree to this if it was satisfied that there was enough evidence. Wi I need to give evidence in court if you take ega action? You woud need to be a witness in any ega action. In some cases the court may ony need the evidence of a professiona witness, such as a poice officer or an environmenta heath officer. If you are worried about appearing in court, contact your community housing manager. If I am experiencing vioence in my home, can you hep? We have a very cose working reationship with East Surrey Domestic Abuse Service and we recommend that you contact them for hep and advice. You can find their teephone number in section 11 at the end of this handbook. If you have to eave your home because of vioence from someone iving with you, you can ask the counci for housing 6 Your home and surroundings Section 6 page 13

14 advice. Domestic vioence is a crimina offence so you shoud aso report it to the poice. A tenant who is vioent to a member of their househod coud be breaking their tenancy agreement, so pease aso contact your community housing manager. The Refuge 24-hour nationa Crisis Line number is shown in section 11 at the end of this handbook. What about vioence to Raven staff? If you or members of your househod are abusive, threatening or vioent to our staff, you are breaking your tenancy agreement. We coud take you to court and ask for a court order to stop your vioent behaviour or to have you evicted from your home. Where do I report suspected drug deaing? Pease contact the poice, or you can use the Crimestoppers service to report anonymousy. Tenants must not use, or aow someone ese to use, their homes for iega or immora purposes such as drug-deaing, running a brothe, deaing in stoen goods or iega gambing. We work very cosey with the poice on drug-deaing and other crimina activities carried out in or near our properties. If a tenant is convicted, we coud take them to court and they may be evicted from their homes. What shoud I do if I am a victim of a hate incident? As with anti-socia behaviour or harassment, we wi take quick and effective action to support you and investigate any reports we receive. Pease see our eafet Hate Crime and hate incidents for fu detais. Section 6 page 14 Your home and surroundings 6

15 6.9 Your surroundings Your oca surroundings are very important. We provide various services and faciities for tenants and residents in particuar estates and properties. We maintain most estate faciities, but we need your co-operation to keep them in good condition and avaiabe to everyone who wishes to use them. Communa areas Who is responsibe for ceaning the communa areas in my bock of fats? We are responsibe for ceaning the communa areas if you ive in a bock of fats that is three or more storeys high. If you ive in a shetered housing scheme or temporary accommodation unit, our staff wi do this ceaning. If you wish to comment on the ceaners work, pease contact the customer services team. For most of the other bocks of fats, tenants are responsibe for ceaning the communa areas. However, if a the residents in the bock agree to pay a reguar charge, we may be abe to arrange to cean these areas. Pease contact your community housing manager for detais. Can I eave my bike or pushchair on the communa anding? No you must not keep any of your persona beongings in the communa areas. They coud obstruct the way out in case of fire. Estate areas Who is responsibe for ooking after the andscaping in my area? We are responsibe for ooking after some andscaped communa areas (such as grassed areas, shrubs, borders and trees), where these are near bocks of fats or some estate areas. 6 Your home and surroundings Section 6 page 15

16 If you have a compaint or a comment about a particuar area, pease contact either the customer services team or your community housing manager, who can te you whether we are responsibe and, if we are, how we can put things right. Who is responsibe for ooking after the pay areas? We are responsibe for the pay area on the Rivers estate, Redhi. The counci is responsibe for a other pay areas. Pease encourage your chidren to use pay areas sensiby and with consideration for others. If you notice something that ooks dangerous or needs to be repaired, pease contact us or the counci immediatey. Cars and parking Can I park my car in the street outside my home? Yes provided there are no parking restrictions and your vehice dispays a vaid tax disc. If the street is a pubic road, anyone can park directy outside your home it is not your persona space. If you have a disabiity, you may be abe to have a disabedparking space marked outside your home. Contact the counci for more information about this. What if I see a vehice parked dangerousy or inconsideratey? If it is on a pubic road, pease contact the poice or the counci. Are arge commercia vehices aowed to be parked on estate roads? Vehices weighing over five tonnes shoud not be parked We aim to remove on the pubic road. We ask abandoned vehices that other arge commercia within 10 days of vehices are parked sensiby, being tod about without causing a nuisance to them. others. Section 6 page 16 Your home and surroundings 6

17 What if an untaxed vehice is parked on the road? Pease contact the Driver and Vehice Licensing Agency (DVLA). What if an untaxed vehice is parked on an estate car park? Pease contact your neighbourhood warden or community housing manager. They wi get a notice fixed to the vehice, asking the owner to move it or get it taxed. Where do I report an abandoned vehice? If it is on the road, pease contact the counci. If it is on our and, pease contact your neighbourhood warden or our customer services team. We wi fix a notice to the vehice, asking the owner to remove it, and in the meantime, we wi try to trace the owner. We aim to remove abandoned vehices within 10 days of being tod about them. Wi you provide me with a hardstanding (an area of tarmac or concrete) to park my car? No however you can buid your own hardstanding. Pease see information beow. Can I buid my own hardstanding? Yes provided you get our permission first and aso get any other permission you need from the counci. Can I park my car in my garden without a hardstanding? No you wi be breaking your tenancy agreement, which states that motor vehices, caravans or traiers can be parked ony on and that is set aside for parking and then ony if you first get our written permission. A neighbour appears to be running a car-repair business from their home what can be done? If they are a Raven tenant, they coud be breaking their tenancy agreement, so pease contact your community housing manager. 6 Your home and surroundings Section 6 page 17

18 If they are not a Raven tenant, pease contact the counci s environmenta services section. Can I repair my car on the road outside my home? Yes if you need to carry out minor repairs or routine maintenance to your own vehice, and you do not cause nuisance or annoyance to your neighbours. Can I rent a garage from Raven? Yes - we have garages in severa ocations offered at competitive rents around the area, athough some sites may have a waiting ist. If you woud ike to rent a garage, pease contact the customer service team. You wi need a cear rent account. Garages are for storing items such as domestic vehices (eg cars or motorbikes). They shoud not be used for running businesses, storing dangerous or iega goods, or food, rubbish or househod waste. If you store vauabe items or other goods in a garage, pease remember that they wi not be covered by your insurance. We are aso not responsibe for any oss or damage caused to your items whie they are stored in any of our garages. You may carry out vehice repairs in your garage to your own vehice ony. If you break the garage agreement, we wi end the agreement and repossess the garage. Parking enforcement Can we have resident-ony parking restrictions in my area? Yes if after consutation the majority of residents are in favour of a scheme. Raven has a contract with an independent organisation who monitors and patros some of our parking areas, issuing tickets to non permit hoders. Section 6 page 18 Your home and surroundings 6