Your tenancy

Sole tenancies

If you're a sole tenant wishing to create a joint tenancy with your partner, you need to contact your housing officer. Call the housing team on (01788) 533533.

Joint tenancies

Each joint tenant has responsibility for keeping to all the conditions of the tenancy agreement.

Should your circumstances change, you need to contact your housing officer. Call the housing team on (01788) 533533.

If you wish to change your tenancy you should complete and return this form.

Family members may be eligible to take over the tenancy of a council home when the tenant dies.

The following have the right to succeed a council tenancy:

• a husband, wife or partner who was living with the tenant at the time of death
• another family member or relative who has lived with the tenant for at least the previous year

Due to the pressures of demand on the council's housing stock, if a single person succeeds the tenancy of a family home, the council may decide the property qualifies as under-occupied.

In such circumstance, the council grants succession to the property on a temporary basis until more suitable accommodation can be found.

All tenants MUST GIVE FOUR WEEKS' NOTICE.

A tenancy can only be terminated by:

• the tenant
• the executor of a will or solicitor
• an individual with power of attorney for a tenant who no longer has the capacity to terminate a tenancy due to going into a home
• a court following a Notice to Quit being issued by a Tenancy Support Officer

You can pick up a termination of tenancy form from the Town Hall or download it.

Download the Termination of Tenancy Form

When you give notice, you receive a tenancy termination date when you must return your keys.

Before leaving your council property, you have a number of responsibilities in terms of the cleanliness and repair of the property.

Full details can be found in your Tenant Handbook.

Download the Tenant Handbook

What happens following the death of a council tenant who lived alone?

Following the death of a council tenant who lived alone, the tenancy does not end when the tenant dies. A tenancy can only be ended by:

• an executor - the person, named in the will, who deals with the possessions of the person who died
• an administrator - the person who has applied to the Probate Registry and obtained letters of administration (or the grant of probate)
• Rugby Borough Council

A next of kin, who is not the executor or administrator, cannot end the tenancy.

In the absence of an executor or administrator, by law Rugby Borough Council must serve a Notice to Quit on the public trustee (a public office to which the tenancies of tenants who die without a will, or with a will but no executor, are temporarily transferred).

The tenancy ends four weeks after the council serves the Notice to Quit and rent is charged during this period. Any charges will be made against the former tenant's estate once the tenancy has ended.

Four weeks after the account was closed, a closing statement of the rent account will be sent to the executor, adminstrator or next of kin.

If the tenant was in receipt of Housing Benefit, the payment of benefit stops on the date of death and therefore does not cover any charges after this date.

Access to the property and clearance

If the executor, administrator or any other individual already has keys to the property, Rugby Borough Council will not provide access to the property. However, we can only give keys to the person named as executor or administrator.

Once a disclaimer form has been signed and the keys returned, Rugby Borough Council disposes of any goods not required. We reserve the right to charge disposal costs back to the estate.

For more information about ending a council tenancy, contact us using the details below.