Succession is the means by which a secure tenancy passes on the death of the original tenant, to someone else who has the legal right to inherit it.
Tenants with an introductory tenancy also have the right of succession if the intending successor lived at the tenant's property as their only or principal home immediately before their death.
Any qualifying successor would succeed to the remaining period of the introductory tenancy which would then become secure at the end of that period.
A tenancy can only be passed on once
There can only be one succession of a secure or introductory tenancy.
This means that if the deceased tenant was already a successor in their own right, the tenancy can't normally be passed on again to another person.
When we receive a claim for succession, we'll carry out checks to establish whether or not there has already been a succession of the tenancy.
Joint tenants
If a tenancy is held in joint names and one of the tenants dies, the tenancy will pass on to the surviving tenant. This is regarded as a succession, so when the remaining joint tenant dies, there can be no further succession.
For older tenancies where there are more than two tenants, if one of the tenants dies, the tenancy will continue for the remaining tenants. This will not count as a succession until the tenancy is passed to the last surviving tenant.
No one to succeed
If a tenant dies and there is no one who qualifies to succeed their tenancy, the tenancy doesn't end automatically until a Notice to Quit is served by the executor of the tenant's will or the Public Trustee, which brings the tenancy to an end after 28 days.