Social housing Tenancy Assignment

[Poppie2023]

Hi all, would appreciate any advice or own experiences. Has anyone done this? What was the reason given? And who was the landlord as each may use their own discretion on a case by case. Just to be clear I’m not talking about succession on death but rather tenancy assignment. How easy or difficult? Thanks in advance.

So signing over your HA property to a family member? Are you moving out?

I’m not sure if you can. When I got divorced the tenancy was in my ex husband’s name but the HA wouldn’t transfer it me so I had to get it included in our consent order. It’s only mine until the youngest DC is 18 and then it reverts back to my ex.

It’s worth calling your housing officer to see what their policy is.

what Is your current situation ? Are you moving out? Assigning a tenancy means you will lose all rights to the tenancy. The person you want to assign will have to have lived at the property for more than 12 months they also need to be a close relative You’ll also need the HAs permission I would check to see if they have a policy it. And check your tenancy

england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/council_housing_association/assigning_a_tenancy

I assigned my council tenancy to my son, under Islington Council. I went to the council offices to tell them I wanted to assign the tenancy, and they did some checks and sent forms for us to sign, and we got a neighbour to act as a witness.

It took about a month to sort it out, but there were delays. It was all fairly straightforward. My son was a secure tenant afterwards and was able to buy the flat under rtb.

The council where I live will only do this in very limited circumstances, eg if a parent and child and are living with a parent/grandparent who dies or goes into a care home. Even then it's not a given, and the property has to be the right size. They won't assign unless they would have a statutory duty to house the people seeking the assignment if they were homeless, eg have been living in the district for 5 years.

To make it even more complicated, the assignment policy isn't set out anywhere, it seems to be entirely discretionary.

You can add a family member to your tennancy in most cases providing
they have lived with you for a year
and that you never assigned or inherited the tenancy
my nephews just been added to his nans tennancy

Our HA has a rule that if one person on a joint tenancy leaves the other, or dies, then the tenancy has already been 'inherited' by the remaining joint tenant, and dependents have no right of succession or assignment.

Yes mine has the same.