Giving your tenancy to others

If you are a secure tenant when you die, your tenancy can be passed on to your spouse (a person living with you as your husband or wife or the partner of a lesbian or gay relationship).

It can also pass to a family member if they are living with you at the time and it has been their only or main home for at least 12 months before your death.

A family member includes a parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew, niece, stepchild, halfblood relation and illegitimate child.

If more than one person in a family qualifies to take over your tenancy, we will give priority to the 'spouse' of the person who has died.

If there is no agreement in the family about who should take over the tenancy, we will decide. The law allows the tenancy to pass on only once.

In the case of joint tenants, when one of the joint tenants dies, the other joint tenant will take over the tenancy as long as he or she was living in the property as his or her main home at the time of the tenant's death.

If you take over a tenancy when the tenant dies and the property has two bedrooms more than your household needs, you may have to transfer to another home. We will discuss this with you at this time.

If you are living with a tenant who dies, you should tell your area housing office. Ask them for advice about your rights to succeed to the tenancy.