FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

  • A tenant’s union – just like a trade union commonly unites people who work in certain industries – unites, represents, protects and fights for the rights and interests of people who are renting their homes.

    Our aim is to create a fairer housing market with affordable rents, well maintained and healthy properties, safety, and security on the long term and without discrimination. We want to end homelessness and exploitation.

  • We are a member-led union, and as a grassroot organization, we build our work around the needs and the skills of our community.

    Our working groups focus on different areas and hold regular meetings to raise awareness among renters and carry out relevant research and liaise with the local authorities, policy makers, and stakeholders.

    We organise demonstrations and plan to draw on an increasing number of our members to stand together to prevent evictions.

    We listen to the issue our members present, equip them with advice already available and connect them with pro bono legal experts who can offer meaningful help when dealing with landlords.

    We work together with other tenant unions in London, Manchester and elsewhere to share our ideas and best practice.

  • As much as we like to help others we also need your help. As an emerging organisation we need more members to become a powerful voice in Southampton. Your experience and skills could be a fantastic asset in our fight against exploitation.

  • When you first complete the membership form and sign our Guarantee, you will automatically become a provisional member and added to our database and mailing list. To become an active member involved in our democratic decision making processes with full voting rights we expect you to pay dues. Our dues are very reasonable, please check out our next section.

  • When you join, we ask you to pay a £1.00 joining fee. this is to cover your liability as it is explained in our STU Guarantee. The monthly membership fee is explained in this table.

  • The aim of our union is to represent and protect tenants against the exploitative nature of the present housing market, which is stacked against tenants in favour of landlords. While we know there are fair landlords who respect their tenants, our members’ interest requires to keep landlords away from our union.