Tenant management organisation

Last updated
Housing (Right to Manage) Regulations 1994
Statutory Instrument
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (variant 1, 1952-2022).svg
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Citation SI 1994/627
Territorial extent  England and Wales
Dates
Made7 March 1994
Laid before Parliament11 March 1994
Commencement 1 April 1994
Revoked1 October 2008 (England only)
Other legislation
Made under Housing Act 1985
Revoked by Housing (Right to Manage) (England) Regulations 2008 (England only)
Status: Amended
Text of statute as originally enacted
Housing (Right to Manage) (England) Regulations 2008
Statutory Instrument
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (variant 1, 1952-2022).svg
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Citation SI 2008/2361
Territorial extent  England
Dates
Made4 September 2008
Laid before Parliament10 September 2008
Commencement 1 October 2008
Revoked6 August 2012
Other legislation
Repeals/revokesHousing (Right to Manage) Regulations 1994 (England only)
Made under Housing Act 1985
Revoked by Housing (Right to Manage) (England) Regulations 2012
Status: Revoked
Text of statute as originally enacted
Housing (Right to Manage) (England) Regulations 2012
Statutory Instrument
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (variant 1, 1952-2022).svg
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Citation SI 2012/1821
Territorial extent  England
Dates
Made10 July 2012
Laid before Parliament13 July 2012
Commencement 6 August 2012
Other legislation
Repeals/revokesHousing (Right to Manage) (England) Regulations 2008
Made under Housing Act 1985
Status: Current legislation
Text of statute as originally enacted

A tenant management organisation (TMO) is an organisation set up under the UK Government's Housing (Right to Manage) Regulations 1994 (SI 1994/627) (or its 2008 and 2012 successor instruments in relation to England), which gives residents of council housing homes in England and Wales the statutory right to take over responsibility for the running of their homes. [1] Tenants of housing association homes do not have a right to establish a tenant management organisation but may establish one under a voluntary route with the agreement of the landlord.

Contents

The equivalent entity in Scotland is a tenant management co-operative, as defined in section 55 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001. [2]

Structure and operation

A TMO is created when residents (tenants and leaseholders) in a defined area of council homes create a corporate body and, typically, elect a management committee to run the body. [3] This body then enters into a formal legal contract between the landlord of the home(s) and the council, known as the management agreement. This agreement outlines the services a TMO is responsible for and what services the council is responsible for. The services provided by TMOs are funded by the management allowances paid by the Council under the agreement. [4] Such allowances should approximate to the sums the landlord would have spent to deliver the services had they remained under the direct provision of the landlord. They may therefore differ between TMOs who fall under different council landlords.

Before any management agreement can be approved by government, the TMO must be approved as competent via an independent assessment overseen by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) which holds an approved list of assessors capable of undertaking such an assessment.

The TMO must also "win" a ballot of residents in the area concerned. This must secure a majority of residents overall and a majority of secure tenants. Such a ballot must be held every 5 years during the life of the TMO.

The management agreement details the services which are to be managed by the TMO on behalf of the landlord. The extent of the devolution in service can vary enormously, particularly between small and large TMOs, but may typically include day-to-day repairs, allocations and lettings, tenancy management, cleaning and care taking and rent collection/recovery. [4] The precise detail as to which organisation undertakes which service (or part of a service) has, since 2005, been contained in the accompanying Schedules to the Management Agreement. This was separated from the body of the management agreement in 2005 to allow for policies and procedures to be more easily updated.

The TMO can take a number of legal forms. Registered TMOs may be a co-operative, or set up under corporate law.

Some 'guide TMOs' provide support to community groups interested in the concept (Friday Hill TMO and Millbank Estate TMO are two examples in London). The work of a TMO may touch and overlap with that of an arms-length management organisation (ALMO). [5]

Independent research is limited as to the effectiveness of tenant management but studies by The Office of The Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) published in 2002 (Tenants Managing - An Evaluation of Tenant Management Organisations in England and by Rachael Newton & Professor Rebecca Tunstall for Urban Forum (Lessons For Localism:Tenant Self-Management) in 2012, support the case for devolving control of management functions to residents at a local level. An Evaluation of English Social Housing Policy 1975-2000 states "All the studies of tenant management in local authority stock have found that they offered a quality housing service, spent less than local authorities on management and maintenance, but obtained significantly higher levels of tenant satisfaction."

Setting up a TMO

The London Borough of Hackney council website states the following as a possible plan to set up a TMO:

  1. Explore the options for involvement
  2. Right to manage notice
  3. Develop business plan training and negotiations
  4. Competence assessment
  5. Offer to tenants and then ballot
  6. Setting up and going live

If a TMO is set up, the existing tenants or leaseholders of the council retain that status and their existing rights are protected. [4]

Examples of tenant management organisations in England

References

  1. ↑ "The Housing (Right to Manage) Regulations". legislation.data.gov.uk. 7 March 1994. Retrieved 30 June 2017.
  2. ↑ Scottish Parliament. Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 as amended (see also enacted form ), from legislation.gov.uk .
  3. ↑ "What is a TMO?". National Federation of Tenant Management Organisations. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 "Tenant management organisations". London Borough of Hackney. 8 September 2020. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  5. ↑ NFA, NFTMO, CWAG (2009). Local Authority, ALMO and TMO relationships: A good practice guide (PDF). NFA, NFTMO, CWAG.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ "BITMO | Belle Isle Tenant Management Organisation". Belle Isle TMO. Retrieved 21 February 2024.


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