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Your tenancy agreement

As a fully mutual housing co-operative, BNCHA issues a contractual tenancy agreement.  This means that member rights and responsibilities are contained within the tenancy agreement, as opposed to some tenancy rights for the assured tenants of housing associations which are set out in law.

In practice, a fully mutual housing co-operative tenancy operates in similar ways to how assured tenancies work, but there are some specific issues:

1. There is no Right to Buy, Voluntary Right to Buy, or Right to Acquire attached to co-op contractual tenancies
2. Co-op members have a legal right to participate in general meetings of the co-op
3. If a Notice to Quit is issued to a member in accordance with our agreed policies (eg. a member had not paid their rent or had committed major anti-social behaviour), the tenancy terminates after four weeks. The co-op would still have to apply to the courts for possession of the home, but if the co-op had correctly followed its policies, the courts would have to grant possession.
4. Membership of the co-op and being a tenant are permanently linked. Tenants must remain members of the co-op for the duration of their tenancy.