Customer home improvements
Find out what home alterations you can and can't carrying out in your believe housing home.
Customer Home Improvements
We appreciate the importance of customers feeling that their house is their home and have recently reviewed and refreshed the Customer Home Improvements Policy and procedure, previously known as Tenant Led Alterations.
The key aims of the policy are to:
-
Ensure all customers live in a safe and comfortable home.
-
Provide clear information for customers in relation to improvements and how to apply for permission.
-
Clearly define customers’ responsibilities for carrying out improvements.
-
Provide guidance as to why permission for an improvement can be or has been refused.
The new application process sees a list of pre-approved improvements customers can carry out without permission needed from believe housing. We have also provided an expanded list of prohibited improvements with a reason as to why we have never or no longer accept these alterations to believe housing properties.
Some of the alterations we have never accepted include cat flaps, garden ponds or log burners. On top of these, we also do not accept painting of external doors, removal of internal walls and painting of kitchen units.
Some of the key changes to note are the following:
-
There are four categories of pre-approved, minor, major and prohibited improvements.
-
There will be a fee of £50 + VAT (£60) to assess requests for all major improvements. This is to ensure that works are carried out safely and will not cause issues to the structure of the building, infringe on neighbouring homes or cause nuisance to neighbours.
-
We will not consider requests for improvements from customers who are in arrears, have outstanding rechargeable repairs or are under review for a breach of tenancy. Customers must reapply once the arrears are cleared, or the breach is rectified.
We will support customers to make improvements, however we will also consider all requests in line with their tenancy agreement, relevant legal and regulatory requirements, best practice, and the values of believe housing.