Summary of Rights

Summary of your rights as a secure tenant

The right of security of tenure

The Housing Act 1985 gives:

• your basic rights of security as a Council tenant
• rules for the landlord to repossess your home if you don’t keep to your tenancy conditions.

We will start court proceedings only when we have tried everything else. If we do need to resort to legal action, we will follow the proper procedure and tell you your rights at every stage.

Changes of tenancy

The Housing Act 1985 and more recent law gives secure tenants certain rights about tenancy changes. These rights are complex, and valid only if you can prove that you qualify for them. We will advise you on your rights but in many cases will ask you to produce satisfactory proof before we agree to let you claim your rights. If you can’t produce satisfactory proof when we ask you to, we will reject your claim.

The right to one succession of tenancy

If you are a secure tenant, the law gives certain people the right to succeed to (take over) your tenancy when you die:

• If you are a joint tenant, then the other joint tenant will automatically succeed to the tenancy.
• If your spouse or civil partner is living with you when you die, they have the right to succeed to your tenancy.
• If you have a partner or another family member, such as a son or daughter, who has lived with you for at least 12 months before you die, they can also succeed to the tenancy.

The person applying to succeed to the tenancy must give proof of their identity, where they live and their relationship with you, when we ask them to. If the property is too big for the successor, we will ask them to move to a smaller one.

By law, a tenancy can only be succeeded to once.

The right to one assignment of the tenancy

If you are a secure tenant and need to leave your property to live elsewhere, the law gives you the right to assign (hand over) your tenancy to someone else in some circumstances. You can assign the tenancy only to those people who would have the right to succeed (see the section on sucessions). If you have succeeded to the tenancy (taken it over from someone who died), you don’t have the right to assign it.
If you wish to assign, you must follow a number of steps:

• You must get permission to assign before you leave your home, as we won’t agree to assign retrospectively (after you have moved out).
• You must write to ask us, giving full details of the person you wish to assign the tenancy to.
• We must make sure that both you and the person you want to assign the tenancy to agree to this.
• You must provide proof of your identity, where you live, and your relationship with the person, when we ask you to.
• You must clear any rent arrears in full.
• We will contact you to arrange a home visit as quickly as possible after receiving your request.

Assignment of a tenancy is a complex legal process. If you are considering it, you should seek independent legal advice.

Changes of authorised occupants

The right to take in lodgers

A lodger is someone living closely with you in your property and paying you rent. You have the right to take in lodgers as long as we, as the landlord, think this is reasonable.

If you wish to take in a lodger, you must follow a number of steps:

• You must ask us for permission before you take in a lodger.
• We will then consider whether this is reasonable. We will look at how many people are already living in the property and whether having a lodger would overcrowd it.
• If we say you can take in a lodger and you are getting Housing Benefit, you must tell the Council’s Housing Benefit department.
• You will also be responsible for making sure the lodger leaves the property if you end your tenancy.

The right to sublet your property

Subletting is when you let part of your home to someone else while you are still living there. A subtenant pays you rent to use a room just for themselves but (unlike a lodger) has little to do with you day to day.

If you wish to sublet part of your property, you must get our permission first. We will consider your application using the guidelines described in the section above on lodgers.

We won’t allow you to sublet the whole of your property in any circumstances. If you do sublet the whole of your property:

• you will lose your security of tenure
• we will take legal action to take back the property.

The right to swap homes with someone else (mutual exchange)

You can swap homes (do a mutual exchange) with another tenant of a Council or housing association, but you must first get permission from both landlords. There are a number of ways to find someone to exchange with – look in the ‘Moving home’ section of this handbook.

When you have found someone suitable, contact us and the Rehousing section at the Council. We will then arrange a home visit as quickly as possible and decide as soon as we reasonably can. We will ask you to clear any rent arrears in full before we agree a mutual exchange.

The right to buy

You have the right to buy your home at a discount when you have lived in the property for at least two or five years, depending whether your tenancy started before or after 18 January 2005. For more information on this right, please see the section Buying your home.

The right to improve your home

You have the right to improve your home as long as we, as your landlord, think this is reasonable. For more information on this right, please see the section Improving your home.

The right to manage

A tenants’ or residents’ organisation has the right to set up a Tenant Management Organisation, which may be able to take on responsibility for the day-to-day management of your homes. If you would like more information about this right, please contact us.

The right to be consulted

You have the right to be consulted about major changes in how we manage your home. We will consider any comments received during consultation before we reach a decision.

The right to see your housing records

You have the right to see your personal housing file so you can check the details to make sure they are correct. If you want a copy of part of your file, or the whole file, we will make a small administration charge.

The right to repair

The law that granted this right in 1994 means Councils must do some types of repairs within a set time. As the Council’s managing agent, we will arrange to repair your property within the time agreed with the Council. If we don’t do the repairs within this time, you can make a legal claim for disrepair.

Sole and joint tenancies

• When you first sign up for a tenancy, you can choose whether to become a sole tenant or a joint tenant with a partner.
• If you choose a joint tenancy, both of you are responsible for keeping to the conditions in the tenancy agreement – including paying all the rent.
• If you choose a sole tenancy and later want to change to a joint tenancy, you must contact us. We will agree to change from a sole to a joint tenancy in certain circumstances. But you don’t have the right to insist on a joint tenancy.

One person in a joint tenancy can end it at any time even if the other person doesn’t agree.