Death of a tenant

Please click the link below if you want to tell us about the death of a tenant or you think you qualify to succeed. You should notify us within a month of the tenant’s death.

When a tenant dies, the tenancy they hold will automatically pass to any joint tenant(s). If there are no joint tenants, the tenancy may pass from the person who died to another person who lived with them at the time of their death - this is called 'succeeding to a tenancy'.

In some cases we must agree by law to this 'succession'. In other cases, we allow this to happen.

If there are no joint tenants, the tenancy can pass to:

• Their partner (their husband, wife, civil partner or the person who had been living with them as part of a couple – gay or straight), as long as that person had been living with the tenant when they died.
• If there is no partner, it can pass to a relative (parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece) if they had been living with the tenant for the previous twelve months.

Anyone who takes over the tenancy in this way is called a successor.

Succession can only happen once. If you are already a successor (you have taken over the tenancy from someone else) you do not have the right to pass the tenancy on to anybody else. We may however agree to give you a new tenancy agreement and allow you to stay in the property.

Although you may have the right to succeed, we may decide to move you to alternative suitable accommodation if the property is too big for you, has been substantially adapted for a person with special requirements or is designated for use by a particular group such as older people.

If no one applies to take over a tenancy within one month of a death, the tenancy will end.

If someone dies while still an introductory or demoted tenant, the person who succeeds this tenancy will only become a secure tenant on the date stated in the tenancy agreement.