Do You Need That Document?
With the Government set on extending the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act to cover TMOs there’s never been a better time to carry out some organisational housekeeping and getting rid of those minutes from 1997!
Put simply you don’t have to create information that you don’t hold and the best way to ensure that you don’t hold unnecessary information is to clear up both your physical and digital records (yes it applies to both). The best place to start is by adopting a retention schedule (or actually using the one you already have) which sets out how long your TMO will keep information for before destroying it. For some information you’ll need to retain it for ever (leases, tenancy agreements for current residents). For other records e.g. annual accounts there are legal requirements which set out how long you need to hold the information for and you shouldn’t hold onto the information for longer than you need to.
If you don’t have a retention schedule then a good place to start will be to copy the relevant sections from your landlords schedule and to adopt that.
Getting rid of old records can be difficult as there’s always the feeling that you should keep things ‘just in case’ but the disposal of old records is essential for your TMO to run smoothly and could save you a lot of time when FOI for TMOs comes into force.
We don’t currently have a confirmed date from which FOI will apply to TMOs but it’s reasonable to assume that it will apply from April 2027 which is when the Social Tenants Access to Information Requirement Standard (STAIRS) will apply to housing associations (TMOs managing stock within this sector will most likely have to comply with STAIRS rather than FOI)
