Council tenancy succession
Where a secure tenancy has been granted before 1 April 2012, then a person will be qualified to succeed to the tenancy where they are either:
- The sole tenant's spouse or civil partner or a person living with the tenant as their spouse or civil partner; or
- Another member of the sole tenant's family and has resided with the tenant for twelve months ending with the tenant's death
Family members include parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces. Step and half relatives are treated as blood relatives.
This rule will be changed once Schedule 8 to the Housing and Planning Act 2016 comes into force, upon which there are no longer any statutory rights of succession for other family members for tenancies granted before 1 April 2012.
Where tenancy granted after April 2012
Where a secure tenancy has been granted after 1 April 2012, then a person will only be qualified to succeed to the tenancy where they are either the sole tenant's spouse or civil partner or a person living with the tenant as their spouse or civil partner. There are no longer any statutory rights of succession for other family members.
There can only be one succession to a secure tenancy
A deceased tenant may have been a successor, meaning there are no further rights of succession. A person is a successor if:
- They gained the tenancy via a will or intestacy of a previous tenant.
- They gained the tenancy by surviving a previous spouse or civil partner who was a joint tenant; (when there is a joint tenancy and one of the tenants who is already a successor does, the other remaining tenant still gets passed the joint tenancy by survivorship – this counts as a succession).
- They became a tenant as a result of an assignment (not mutual exchange).
- They mutually exchanged to the property and they were a successor at the address that they assigned (old address).