Successions

The right to succeed was introduced by the Housing Act 1980. It has been amended since by the Housing Act 1985 and the Localism Act 2011. How we deal with cases is also influenced by our own Housing Policy and our Tenure Policy.

Successions

Succession can be complex and the legal position is sometimes surprising so it can be helpful to refer to the full guidance note when dealing with a case. The succession flowchart summaries the things you need to establish before you can decide whether a succession has taken place.

Because succession depends on the law and formal council policy agreed by Councillors this guidance is necessarily prescriptive in parts.

The guidance deals with both statutory successions (where someone has a statutory right to succeed according to the law) and also situations where the Council can grant a tenancy to someone who can't succeed. You can read the full guidance covering both here

Spouses, registered civil partners and joint tenants have the legal right to remain in a property when a tenant dies regardless of how under occupied it is. Unmarried partners have this right if the tenancy began after 1 April 2012 (due to changes in the law from that date a as result of the Localism Act).

Otherwise, to make the use of our stock, we would usually expect an under occupying successor to down-size. There is a particular legal process to follow if downsizing is enforced and this is covered in the full guidance. It can't begin any earlier than six months after the tenant died (or we were told), or later than 12 months after the tenant died (or we were told), suitable alternative accommodation must be provided and possession action must be reasonable.

Examples of a Ground 15a notice are on the housing forms page on essentials (see successions).

Last updated: 13 October 2023