Making changes to your home

We want you and your family to feel at home when renting from us. We welcome you to decorate your home and make changes to make it your own provided certain conditions are met. You don't need to ask for permission to paint or decorate your property, but you will need to complete an application form and supply us with any relevant documentation (eg building control, planning permission) for the following alterations:

Decorating the outside of your home
Putting in extra electrical sockets
Installing an electric vehicle charging point
Installing central heating or moving radiators
Building a shed or greenhouse
Fitting a new bathroom suite or a shower
Fitting new kitchen units or replacing existing ones
Building a fireplace
Building a hardstanding for a car
Changing windows, front doors or back doors
Fitting laminate flooring
Installing a stair lift or other adaptation
Putting up a satellite dish or TV aerial
Putting up wall tiles

If permission is granted, all works should be carried out by competent contractors, and it is important to remember that you will be responsible for the costs of maintaining and repairing any home improvement work you carry out. You may also be responsible for removing items and reinstating your home should you move.

If you do want to make an alteration to your home, please complete our home alterations request form to get the permission you require. If we ask you for further information please respond within 28 days or the application will be cancelled and you will need to re-apply.

Are there any home improvements that are not allowed?

We want you to be able to make your home your own, however we will refuse the following alterations if it relates to our compliance policies such as water safety, fire safety and building safety:

Log burners
External taps
Loft conversions
Hot tubs / Jacuzzis
Conservatories
Layout change (addition or movement of walls) or extensions
Replacements or amendments to external or internal fire doors
Door and window shutters
Installation of security bars on windows or doors due to restriction of fire escape

This list is not exhaustive and there may be other requests that we will not grant permission for. All applications will be assessed using a risk-based approach.

Flooring alterations

We know wood and laminate flooring has become a very popular home improvement however, it has led to an increase in nuisance caused by noise particularly in flats as wood or laminate floor provides very poor sound insulation and this is causing disturbance to customers.

Unfortunately, we cannot grant permission for laminate flooring to be installed in high rise apartments and upper floor flats due to noise levels.

We may grant permission to install laminate flooring in houses, however, you as the customer will be responsible for lifting the flooring and relaying it, at your own expense should it need to be removed to allow access to carry out a repair.

More information

If permission was required, but not obtained, and you move out of the property, you may have to remove the installation and put things back to the original state, or be charged to reinstate the property to previous condition before the installation.

If you are an elderly person or a person living with a disability and require an adaption to your property to help you live at home, you may qualify for property adaptations funded by Community Health and Social Care Direct. For more information or to find out how to apply, visit our 'how do I apply for an adaptation' page.

Watch our short video below for more information