Housing Association Garden Rules: How to Work with Residents for Better Gardens

Gardens are proven to help people’s wellbeing. According to research from mental health charity Mind, nearly 64% of UK adults say gardening or spending time in nature helps their mental health. 

That’s not surprising. Gardens are a great place to get creative, exercise, and soak up some vitamin D from sunlight.

But responsibility for gardens in socially rented properties can be a grey area. Does the landlord look after them or the resident?

According to the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA), there are more than 4,500 disputes between landlords and tenants over garden maintenance each year.

This article explains the rules surrounding garden maintenance in socially rented properties. We’ll also provide some tips that you can share with your residents for keeping their gardens in good condition.

Garden Disputes

According to the NRLA, gardens account for up to 15% of all tenancy disputes. The Tenancy Deposit Scheme says that 39% of landlords have experienced damage to outdoor areas. It identifies three other common areas of dispute:

😠 Disagreements on who pays third parties for garden maintenance.

😠 Residents making changes to the garden without the landlord’s consent.

😠 Disagreements over dealing with garden pests - for example, a wasp nest.

Who Is Responsible for Garden Maintenance?

Under Section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, landlords are required to keep a property’s structure and exterior in good repair.

This is usually interpreted to mean that:

• Landlords are responsible for major works - like removing trees or replacing gates and pathways.

• Residents are responsible for everyday upkeep - like mowing lawns, cutting back foliage and keeping the garden litter-free. 
  
  

Many landlords include a tailored garden clause in their tenancy agreement. This helps avoid disputes by making responsibilities clear and ensuring that both parties agree to them. It also explains what the resident can and cannot do with the garden.

What about communal gardens?

Under the Homes (Fitness for Human Habitation) Act 2018, landlords are responsible for all communal areas in houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs) and housing blocks. This includes communal gardens. 

Most housing providers use a grounds maintenance company to look after communal gardens.

However, residents may have some responsibilities for keeping these areas tidy. This is usually included in their tenancy agreements. 

How to Reduce Garden Disputes

Here are some ways you can reduce disputes with residents over gardens:

Create low-maintenance gardens 

Provide gardens that are easy to maintain but still look good. Here are a few tips:

✅ Minimise or remove lawns: Some tenants won’t mow their lawns, so consider using paving, gravel and decking. Grow plants and flowers in planters and pots to add greenery and colour. Bigger pots and planters are better because they hold more water and so require less watering. 

✅ Choose the right plants: Evergreens like sedges and hellebores stay green all year and create fewer dead leaves. Ground cover plants like hebe pinguifolia 'Pagei' will grow back each year even when aggressively cut back. They are attractive and help to stop weeds growing.

✅ Choose shrubs instead of plants: Shrubs and hedges are hardier than plants and tend to be evergreen. They live longer and they can be easily cut back. 

✅ Stop unchecked growth: Use garden membrane or weed barrier fabric, with decorative coverings like bark chippings and gravel to stop weeds and other unwanted plants from growing. 

✅ Remove any ponds or water features: These require additional maintenance and can be a safety hazard for children. 

Educate residents

Some residents won’t have had any experience looking after a garden. Provide them with a guide explaining what needs to be done and how to keep outdoor areas in good condition.

Outsource maintenance

Garden and grounds maintenance requires some specialist skills and tools. It also tends to be in demand during the summer, when people use their outdoor areas. Therefore, you may want to outsource it to a specialist company.

Include garden maintenance in onboarding

Make it clear what standards you expect your garden to be kept in when you onboard residents. You should also explain how they can report garden issues or request to make changes.

This ensures tenants are aware of what’s required and can ask any questions. Remember to check the condition of the garden during your final inspection when the tenant checks out.

Garden upkeep advice to give your residents

Most residents will simply want to keep their garden tidy so that they can enjoy it in the summer months. 

Here’s a list of tips you can provide to help them do that.

💡 Keep garden tools locked away in a shed or store them safely indoors. This reduces the chance they’ll be stolen or get rusty.

💡 Water any flower beds twice per week. Do so in the evening and aim for the soil, not the plant. This stops water from evaporating in the sunshine. You don’t need to water your lawn.

💡 Mow the lawn once per week in the summer. Try to keep it at around 5 cm in length - this will stop it drying out. You can mow it less in winter, and you may not have to do it at all from December to February.

💡 Weed once per month in the summer, but less often in colder months. Consider using weed killer on paths and along the bottom of walls.

💡 Cut back trees and shrubs at the end of autumn using a set of shears.

💡 Remove dead flower heads. This looks tidier and some plants may flower again.

💡 Sweep up dead leaves once per month during the autumn. 

💡 Clean gutters at least once per year.

💡 Wash garden furniture, decking and paved areas once per year. Use a pressure washer if required. 

How Data Results in Better Gardens 

For social housing providers, garden maintenance issues are often at the bottom of their list of priorities. 

But we’ve already seen that they are a big source of disputes. The condition of a property’s garden impacts the resident’s satisfaction. 

One way to ensure you stay on top of garden maintenance across your properties is to collect data on them and your garden maintenance tasks.

This will help you in several ways:

🌐 Understand your stock: By collecting data on how many gardens you have and how big they are, you understand how much funding and resources you need to assign to them.

🌐 Understand the challenges: If you know which properties have trees, sheds, lawns and other features, then you can make better decisions. For example, if you have a lot of trees at your properties, you may need to send a tree surgeon to each property once per year to ensure they do not become overgrown.

🌐 Less time wasted: Let’s say one of your residents has moved out and you send a gardener to mow the lawn. They get there, only to find that it doesn’t have any grass. You’ve wasted your time and money. With good property data, you can avoid problems like this.  

🌐 Solve problems before they arise: By collecting data on garden-related maintenance issues you can predict when a garden feature will fail and perform planned preventative maintenance. For example, you might find that on average, fence panels last 10 years. Therefore, you could plan to replace them every 9.5 years. This allows you to plan resources better and keeps residents happy because they have to report fewer problems. 

But to collect, store and analyse data, you need the right tools - and that’s where EVO comes in. 

Manage Your Properties' Gardens with EVO

EVO allows housing associations to outsource all of their repairs and maintenance to our digital platform.

We automate the entire process, making it more efficient and effective. We ensure repairs and maintenance tasks are completed fast and to a high standard.

This keeps your residents happy and means housing association staff spend less time managing tradespeople and work-in-progress lists. 

Here’s how EVO works:

✔️ Residents can request repairs or maintenance via a mobile app.

✔️ The system automatically notifies the next available, qualified tradesperson.

✔️ Residents pick three or more suitable time slots.

✔️ The tradesperson receives all necessary information, including visuals and property details.

✔️ Residents can opt to be present or provide access via a secure key exchange point.

✔️ Residents are kept updated during the repair process.

✔️ All work is inspected, approved, and backed by a 12-month warranty from EVO.

But we can also provide you with a wealth of data on your properties. This includes which properties have gardens, what they are like and what features they have. We also collect and store data on each job completed. 

This detailed information enables better planning and decision-making. 

Get in touch today to learn how EVO can assist in maintaining your properties effectively.