When a council tenant dies - succession

Your right to inherit a council tenancy depends on your relationship with the tenant

• If you are the tenant’s spouse or civil partner the tenancy passes to you so long as you are living in your home at the time of the tenant’s death.

• If you are a family member, the tenancy may be passed. This is dependent on the type of tenancy agreement the tenant had and whether the family member has been living there at the time of the tenant's death and is their only or principal home.

• Call your Housing Officer to discuss further. Tel: 01483 523054

You will need to complete a Tenancy Succession Application Form

A family member is defined as the deceased tenant's:

• parent
• grandparent
• child
• grandchild
• brother or sister
• aunt or uncle
• niece or nephew
• step relations and half relations (a half relationship is where you are related to someone through your mother or father but not both).

A carer cannot be a successor.

• If the tenant who dies was a joint tenant, the tenancy continues and remains with the surviving joint tenant provided that person continues to live there as their only or main home.
• This counts as a succession.
• When this joint tenant dies, there can be no further succession.

Yes, a child can succeed the tenancy but an adult must hold the tenancy on trust until the child reaches the age of 18.

When a successor takes the tenancy, there is no new tenancy. This is because the successor is taking over the original tenancy automatically under the rules. So the interest in the property and the obligations of the tenancy (that is, both the rights and the responsibilities) pass to the successor. For instance, any rent arrears will still be owed by the successor.

If a tenant dies and there is no one to succeed, the tenancy does not normally end automatically.

The executor of the estate (usually the person named as executor in the tenant's will, who deals with their possessions) can give up the tenancy to the Council.  If they don't do this we are not entitled to possession while the tenancy still exists, so the tenancy continues.

However, the tenancy will no longer be secure, so we can serve a Notice to Quit on the executor or on the deceased tenant's personal representative if they have taken out probate or letters of administration (these are the legal documents entitling the personal representative to deal with the deceased person's estate).

If no one is administering the deceased tenant's estate, the Public Trustee takes over and we can serve notice on the Public Trustee to bring the tenancy to an end.

For more on what to do when someone dies, please get advice. Citizens Advice South West Surrey may be able to help.

• If you are in housing need, we will encourage you to apply for housing for yourself.  If the property you were living in is larger than you need, we will offer you smaller accommodation. 
• If you are not in housing need, then you will probably have to find other accommodation yourself and we will advise you to look for private rented accommodation or other housing.  If you refuse to move out, we may have to take legal action to remove you.