Succession rights/right of survivorship

If a tenant dies and the tenancy is a joint tenancy, the remaining joint tenant or tenants have an automatic right to stay on in the property (Right of Survivorship). If the tenant was a sole tenant, the right to succession will depend on whether the tenant had a fixed term tenancy or a periodic tenancy. If a fixed term tenancy and the fixed term has not expired, the executors will arrange for it to be passed onto whoever is left the tenancy in the will, or whoever inherits under the intestacy rules if there is no will.

If it was a contractual periodic tenancy or a statutory periodic tenancy, the tenant’s husband or wife or a person who lived with the tenant as husband or wife, has an automatic right to succeed to a periodic tenancy unless the tenant who died had already succeeded to the tenancy. Only one succession is allowed. No one else in the family has an automatic right to succession (s17 Housing Act 1988). If the tenancy was a contractual periodic tenancy or if it was or becomes a statutory periodic tenancy and there is someone living in the property who does not have a right to succeed to the tenancy, the landlord has a right to possession under Ground 7, provided that they start possession proceedings within a year of the death of the original tenant.

If the tenancy is a short-hold tenancy, the landlord has an automatic right to repossess the property at the end of any fixed term, even if the tenant had a right to succession, provided that the landlord gave the proper form of 2 months’ notice under section 21, that the landlord required possession.