Assigning Your Tenancy

Assigning your tenancy is when you pass on your tenancy and your tenancy rights to another person, known as the assignee.

The assignee will then become the tenant and will take over all the rights and responsibilities of the tenancy. This includes paying rent and any outstanding housing debt.
You can only pass on your tenancy if you have our permission in writing.

Eligibility criteria:
If you want to pass your tenancy to another person, the following must apply:
• you must have lived in the property as your only or main home for 12 months immediately before you apply for written permission to pass your tenancy to someone else; and
• the person you want to pass your tenancy to must have lived at the property as their only or main home for the 12 months before you apply; and
• the 12 month period does not begin unless we have been told that the person is living in the property as their only or main home by filling in our online Tenant personal details form; and  
• the person you want to pass your tenancy to must have filled in and returned a housing application form to us, which once assessed confirms that they have a significant housing need.

Applying to assign your tenancy
You must apply for permission by filling in our Application to Assign your Tenancy Form (PDF).
We will need the following information if you want to assign your tenancy:
• your details
• the address of the property
• the name of the person taking over the tenancy (assignee)
• the date of the proposed assignation
• if you are to receive any money from assigning the tenancy
• written permission from joint tenants, if applicable.
We will give you our decision in writing within one month of getting your application. We will not refuse permission without a good reason.  If we refuse permission, we will tell you why and how you can appeal against our decision. If we don’t respond to you within one month, this means we have given our permission for you to pass on your tenancy

Once an assignee takes over your tenancy, they have the same legal rights and responsibilities as all council tenants. However if there any arrears at the assignation of the property, these become the responsibility of the new tenant.

More information
You can read more information in our:
• Assignations Policy
• Assignations Policy (easy to read version)
• Assignations leaflet