Tenancy policy

Succession

Circumstance in which succession can apply.

A tenant’s succession rights are set out in the Council’s tenancy agreement and within the succession policy. Generally, tenants are not permitted to pass their tenancy on to other people. It is expected that when a tenant no longer needs their home, they return vacant possession of the property to the Council who must re-let it in accordance with its allocation policy. There are however some exceptions to this rule, in some circumstances rights to succession are accrued. There are 4 types of succession:

  • Survivorship: where a joint tenant passes away and the tenancy continues in the surviving tenant's name. The remaining joint tenant or 'survivor' is a successor and therefore no further succession rights exist.
  • Statutory succession: this is a legal right giving successors the right to succeed a tenancy on the death of a tenant. Legislation provides for one statutory succession only, this includes survivorship, as above.
  • Contractual succession is where the tenancy agreement provides additional rights of succession, without needing consent or permission. WHBC do not include contractual rights of succession within their tenancy agreements.
  • Discretionary succession may be considered where a spouse or family member does not have a legal right to succeed a tenancy, but where offering a new tenancy is appropriate to the circumstances. This will always be in accordance with the Housing Allocations Policy and all cases must be considered and approved by the Council’s Exceptional Circumstances Panel.

An important note regarding succession rights is that as a result of changes to the law on succession made in the Localism Act 2011, for all tenancies started after 1 April 2012 the statutory right to succeed to a tenancy belongs only to the qualifying spouse, partner or civil partner of the tenant providing they were residing with the deceased tenant at the time of their death as their only or principal home. Tenancies which commenced before 1 April 2012 are not affected by these changes.

Further details on succession are set out in the Council’s Succession Policy.