”I would like to take this opportunity to explain about a misunderstanding that I am not alone in having, but was incorrectly under the impression of, for multiple years as a Seaside tenant.
I understood that I was a Seaside tenant with a regular assured short-hold tenancy. I was under the impression that so long as I ensured that the rent and service charges were paid that I was essentially now housed by Brighton Council, as per their legal duty blah blah blah. That the property was managed by the Temporary Accommodation team meant nothing to me specifically, bureaucracies love their technical names and internal sub-divisions. I honestly thought that my housing journey was at an end. Pleased as punch with a Seaside property, all the ones I'm aware of are superior to 'normal council stock' standards - initially anyway! The associated downside is the higher rent cost being a potential difficulty to be addressed at a later date, returning to full time work or receiving money due to a relative’s death etc. I've had the conversation on more than one occasion that theoretically, if i pay my charges and top ups etc, I could quietly continue to live in my Seaside property until I died a natural death in years to come. I was at no point unencumbered of this belief. It was truly, never, clearly, in single syllable words, explained to me that this was just a part of the process and there was a further final procedure still to follow. I'd been a Seaside tenant for six and a half years before it was explained to me that this was a temporary property, admittedly, the length of time as a tenant was on the unusually high end, but then some Seaside tenants move on in a matter of months - things must balance somehow. This whole situation only came to light recently with me engaging (through Office Manager Karen’s assistance) with Sussex Homemove. I had questions about my personal account status prior to a tenant engagement day on the topic. It was really only then that I was made aware that in all likelihood, I was not in fact probably going to die of old age in the flat I currently occupy but would in fact, at some indeterminate point in the future, have to move to a whole other property to die in. This was a huge surprise to me. I am not the only Seaside tenant under this impression. May I suggest that the tick box chart for inducting new tenants to properties takes two minutes to properly and clearly explain the nature of the potentially however lengthy Seaside tenancy, it is not the end, and that there is more to follow, as it were?MatthewSeaside Tenant
Seaside’s Response
Thank you Matthew for raising this issue. It’s something we’ve heard several times from tenants during the recent Tenant Panels and Tenant Overview workshop on improving the move-in process. We know that the arrangement that Seaside Homes have with Brighton & Hove City Council can be confusing. We’ve included an article about the history of Seaside Homes in this edition to give some background. One of the recommendations that came out of the Moving-in Tenant Overview workshop, was for the Temporary Accommodation team to clearly explain the length of time a tenant may expect to remain in a Seaside Homes property. We are still awaiting the Council’s reply to these recommendations, but hopefully this recommendation will be taken on board moving forward.
