Passing your tenancy to someone else

The circumstances are:

• if they want to assign the tenancy to someone who would be entitled to succeed to the tenancy
• if a court has made an order under matrimonial law
• if the tenant is doing a mutual exchange.

You cannot assign your tenancy to someone else unless you have written permission from the council.

Passing the tenancy (succeeding)

The tenancy can be assigned if you did not become the tenant by taking over from a previous tenant and the person taking over the tenancy is:

• your spouse and they are presently living at the property as their principal home
• your close family who wants to take on the tenancy and has been living at the property as their principal home with you for the last 12 months.

What happens?

We will check all requests to make sure the person who wants to take over the tenancy is entitled to have the tenancy assigned to them. We will need:

• clear evidence that the tenant wishes to pass their tenancy and is not acting under pressure
• proof of the family relationship such as marriage or birth certificates, passports etc.

Proof of residence at the family home for the required period of time such as:

• bank or building society statements
• housing benefit documents
• other formal correspondence.

If the request is agreed, the tenant will need to formally assign the property by completing a deed of assignment form. Once this is done we will amend our records and confirm the details to the new tenant of the property. The tenant does not sign a new tenancy agreement.

Assigning the tenancy because of a court order

A court may make an order passing a tenancy from one person to another, for example in divorce proceedings. The court may decide to pass the tenancy of the family home to the person who is going to have custody of the children even if they are not currently the tenant of the property.

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