Adding or Removing Someone from Your Secure Tenancy
Adding or Removing Someone from Your Secure Tenancy
If you have a secure tenancy with Mid Devon Housing, whether solely or jointly, please note that you cannot simply add or remove someone from your tenancy agreement. It is not legally possible to add or remove someone’s name from your tenancy agreement.
To make any changes, you must end your current tenancy by giving a Notice to Quit. Because tenancies are not tied to a specific property, this means:
- You may lose your current home.
- You may not automatically qualify for another social housing tenancy.
After you give notice, your eligibility for social housing will be reassessed before any new tenancy is offered or before you can remain in your current home.
What This Means for You
- If you are a sole tenant and want to add a partner:
You must end your current tenancy and reapply for housing as joint tenants. If you are under-occupying your current home, you may not be able to stay there and could be offered a property that better suits your needs. There is no guarantee you can remain in your current home. - If you are joint tenants and one person leaves:
The remaining tenant will be reassessed for eligibility. If you are under-occupying, you may need to move to a smaller property. The person leaving is considered to have made themselves intentionally homeless, which may affect their ability to access social housing in the future.
Important Advice
If you have a joint tenancy and your relationship breaks down, we cannot decide who stays in the property.
You will need to agree between yourselves or you can ask a court to decide.
You will need to tell us what is happening.
Ether tenant can end a joint tenancy by surrendering their interest in the tenancy by a tenant serving a valid Notice to Quit on the Council. This ends the tenancy for all tenants and gives the Council the right to recover possession of the property even though the other joint tenant(s) may not want to leave.
Remaining occupants do not have a legal right to a new tenancy – it is the Council’s discretion whether to issue a new tenancy.
Either joint secure tenants can serve notice to quit the tenancy acting unilaterally, but this will have serious implications for both tenants. We strongly encourage you to contact us before Notice is issued. You cannot legally rescind notice once it has been served. We will review the tenancy history to advise whether it is likely that a new tenancy will be issued.
Please contact your Neighbourhood Officer before making any decision to add or remove someone from your tenancy. Get in touch with your Neighbourhood Team - MIDDEVON.GOV.UK
For further information on relationship breakdowns please refer to Relationship breakdown - MIDDEVON.GOV.UK