The National Federation of Tenant Management Organisations
The National Federation of Tenant Management Organisations
55 Norwood Crescent,
Southport
PR9 7DU
Contact: Trevor Bell
Tel: 01704
E-mail: trevor@nftmo.com
What is a Tenant Management Organisation?
A TMO is a means by which council or housing association tenants and leaseholders can collectively take on responsibility for managing the homes they live in. Those resident members of the TMO create an independent legal body and usually elect a tenant led management committee to run the organisation. The TMO can then enter into a legal management agreement
(contract) with the landlord. The TMO is paid annual management and maintenance allowances in order to carry out the management duties that are delegated to them.
TMOs can take different forms and sizes. Many are tenant management co-operatives – using co-op rules. Others may take the form of not-for-profit companies. Some TMOs manage just a handful of homes while others manage large estates of two or three thousand properties. The services managed by the TMO vary with local circumstances but may include day-to-day repairs, allocations and lettings, tenancy management, cleaning and caretaking, and rent collection. TMOs are often also proactive in providing wider community benefits such as youth centres, credit unions and social clubs.
About the National Federation of TMOs
The National Federation of Tenant Management Organisations (NFTMO) is a national voluntary membership organisation. Our main purpose is to facilitate networking and support for TMOs in England and to promote community control as an option within regeneration initiatives and in areas of greatest need.
The NFTMO was founded in 1992 and now has over 100 TMOs in membership. We have an executive committee that includes 20 community representatives from all parts of the country. The Federation employs one part time paid co-ordinator but otherwise all of the Federation’s work depends on voluntary effort.
- We promote and facilitate the exchange of experience and ideas between tenant management organisations and like-minded community initiatives.
- We identify and share examples of good practice and excellence – sometimes through good practice guides and publications.
- We provide a web-site at www.nftmo.com
- We publish and distribute 3,000 free copies of a quarterly magazine.
- We organise regional networking events and a national conference
Resident to Resident Advice and Support
The NFTMO is able to offer free advice and support to community organisations that are actively interested in some form of community control of housing and/or other local services.
The support will be provided by volunteers who have direct experience of successful community led initiatives in their own neighbourhoods. They each have their own story to tell but have all been there, done that, and got the T-shirt. They all started from square one, and remember the early days.
The NFTMO Resident Guides can, for example;
- arrange study visits
- share their experiences (warts an’ all!)
- plug your group into a wider network of successful neighbourhood projects.
- help to identify and recruit suitable professional support
- suggest and arrange training opportunities
- help prepare a local action plan
- develop a ‘twinning arrangement’ between your community and theirs
- be co-opted on to your group’s committee as a mentor for a fixed period
- arrange some small grant to kick-start or accelerate the work in your neighbourhood.
We can put you in touch with your local resident guide and / or provide you with a free DVD and poster that tells you more about the Guide Neighbourhood Programme and features some inspiring examples of community led transformation where public services were failing. We are here to help!
Contact
For more information regarding our Guide Neighbourhood Programme or to arrange a visit please contact:
Trevor Bell, NFTMO Co-ordinator
Tel: 01704 227 053
Fax: 01704 227 053
E-mail: contact@nftmo.com