We want you to feel safe and secure in your home, so that you can put down roots in your local area, become a part of the community and be able to plan for the future, without worrying that you may have to move out of your home at the end of your tenancy agreement (usually five years for fixed term tenancies).
For these reasons, we have made a commitment to move away from fixed term tenancies and offer our customers lifetime tenancies, so that you can be secure in the knowledge that, providing you’re up-to-date with your rent payments and have not breached the terms of your tenancy, you’ll be able to remain in your home for as long as you wish.
We’ve been working hard to achieve this, and as of the end of February, we had 22,000 customers on lifetime tenancies. We expect this to increase to around 30,000 customers over the next three years.
“It's really great to see so many customers have been moved onto lifetime tenancies, which offers us real security and peace of mind. We look forward to seeing those that are currently still on fixed term tenancies being moved over onto Lifetime Tenancies, so they can enjoy the same benefits we have.”
David Glover, Orbit customer and Interim Chair of Orbit’s Customer Engagement Strategic Committee
How it works for existing customers
For customers who are on existing fixed term contracts, we will review their tenancies via an automated computerised check. If there are no outstanding issues or rent arrears, we will provide a notice which converts their current agreement to a lifetime tenancy.
Most fixed term customers will receive a notice from us before the end of their current agreement. At the moment, we are sending notices to customers who are in the fourth and fifth year of their fixed-term tenancies. As we convert more and more tenancies, our aim is to contact customers even earlier into their fixed term agreement to move to a lifetime tenancy agreement.
How it works for new customers
The majority of new customers are now automatically given a lifetime tenancy when they sign up with us. There can be exceptions where we can’t offer a lifetime tenancy due to a local reason, for example, restrictions related to planning permission – but wherever possible, we will offer lifetime tenancy as standard.
Find out more about how we convert fixed term tenancies to lifetime tenancies.
