Making changes to your tenancy agreement

Creating a joint tenancy

A joint tenancy is where more than one person has their name on the tenancy agreement. Each person has full legal rights and responsibilities as a council tenant, including equal responsibility to pay the rent and not cause anti social behaviour.

Before you decide to make a request to add someone to your tenancy agreement, make sure you consider the following facts:

• You will both be responsible for the rent and any rent arrears. We can collect all the rent arrears from any individual joint tenant. Even if the second person gets into debt and leaves the home owing money, we can still hold the first person responsible for the full debt.
• Either joint tenant can end the tenancy by giving us four week’s written notice. We do not have to let the other joint tenant stay in the home. Our decision will very much depend on your circumstances and whether the property would be more suitable for another type of household such as a family. We would never ask you to move out without good reason.

There are times when we will refuse a request. This may be because the person you want to become a joint tenant has had difficulties with a tenancy in the past and has been evicted for rent arrears or caused problems for their neighbours.

To make a request to change your tenancy to a joint tenancy, click here

Taking over a tenancy

You can apply to take over someone else’s tenancy if they are moving out of their home or they no longer want to be the tenant.

You can apply to take over the tenancy if:   

• The current tenant has officially told us in writing that they want to give up the tenancy - called 'giving notice'; 
• You were living at the same address as the tenant when they 'gave notice'; or 
• You still live at that address now.

Please see the section on death of a tenant, for more information if the tenant has died.

We do not legally have to agree to your request. Our decision will depend on your circumstances and whether the property could be more suitable for another type of household, such as a family. We will not turn down your request without a good reason.

You can apply to take over a tenancy here