Fighting against your landlord as a tenant can be daunting without support. It can be hard to know where to look to find out what your rights are, and it's easy to hit a brick wall when trying to find out more about who owns a piece of land or property.

To help you find this information, Greater Manchester Tenants Union (GMTU) in collaboration with researchers at the University of Sheffield have developed this how-to research guide. Research is a vital tool when organising against powerful interests. Finding out information about a landlord is a crucial part of our member solidarity cases, and understanding how and where to look for information can help build our understanding of exactly who owns what in our towns and cities.

Our guide breaks down how to learn this information step-by-step, while setting out the process of research so you can keep yourself focused on what you need to find. In this guide we set out how to find information on developers and landlords through the land registry, the planning system and company accounts, inspired by research handbooks developed by CATU in Ireland and Corporate Watch in the UK. We also provide tips for how to share your research, so that the skills and knowledge you learn can be used to benefit collective organising with others.

To do so, we have organised the guide into four parts. The first sets out the basics of organising a research project while providing information that can help protect you against legal issues, including defamation. The second details a step-by-step process for how to use the land registry, companies house and the planning system to find information on developers and landlords. The third lets you know where to find other sources of information on private and social landlords, while the fourth gives tips for how to use your research in collective organising.

In developing this guide, we believe that research is not something best left to experts, or a purely academic exercise. Instead, we see research as a crucial part of building collective power in our homes, communities and neighbourhoods. When using this guide, our hope is that you will be able to organise with others in carrying out collective action and use what you find to hold the powerful to account.

Download "Researching Developers and Landlords: A tenant's how-to guide" here.