Death of a tenant

Northwards Housing manages your home, but it is owned by Manchester City Council. This means that, by law, the tenant in a Northwards home is a 'council tenant'.

If a council tenant dies, the tenancy stays with any joint tenants at that address. (A joint tenant is someone who has their name on the tenancy agreement, is equally responsible for paying the rent, and has the full legal rights and responsibilities of a council tenant).

If there are no joint tenants, the tenancy may pass from the person who died to another person who lived with them at the time of their death - this is called 'succeeding to a tenancy'. In some cases we must agree by law to this 'succession'. In other cases we allow this to happen . . .

Who can succeed to a tenancy?

If there are no joint tenants, the tenancy of their home passes to:

  1. their partner (their husband, wife, civil partner or the person who had been living with them as part of a couple – gay or straight), as long as that person had been living with the tenant when they died.
  2. if there is no partner, it can pass to a relative (parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece) if they had been living with the tenant for the previous six months.
  3. if a partner or relative does not want the tenancy it can pass to a carer of the person who died as long they had been living with them for at least two years and that they are officially recognised as a carer by Manchester City Council.
Conditions

If the tenancy passes to a relative, and the home is bigger than they need, we have the legal right to move them out to a suitable alternative home. But we would not move out a husband, wife, or partner in the same situation.

If someone has already taken over the tenancy following the death of a previous tenant, the tenancy does not legally have to go to someone else if they die. But we may agree to give that person a new tenancy agreement and allow them to stay in the property.

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