taking over a council tenancy????

missyp123

Hello,

Me and my husband are soon to be facing repossesion, we have been told it can now take up to 6 months depending on how our mtg company handle our situation.

We are waiting for advice from CAB as we are taking their advice and saving unpaid mtg for renting a house and for BR fees.

A sibling has said that they would be happy to talk to the council about whether or not we could take over the tenancy. They are currently looking for a private rental (after waiting on exchange list etc) out of the area we are currently in.

Does anybody know anything about how feasable this is??? i dont want to get my hopes up as i am used to everything going wrong for us at the moment.

(Dont know if it makes a difference but my OH works full time, I i work part time and we have a 3 yr old. Have never claimed any benefits for housing etc, just normal tax credits, will be able to pay the full rent etc)

any help as to if this a possible or a no go area would be great

poppysarah

You almost certainly wouldn't be able to.
You will be eligible for emergency housing once you are homeless.
You should speak to shelter.

missyp123

poppysarah wrote: »

You almost certainly wouldn't be able to.
You will be eligible for emergency housing once you are homeless.
You should speak to shelter.

Thankyou for your reply, Could you please explain as to why we couldnt do this?
They seem to think that siblings can take over tenancies. Is it our personal circumstances?

We will continue to look for rental anyway as we dont want to end up with no where

Jowo_2

Quite often a council will have a comprehensive website about assigning tenancies to relatives and this is often covered in the handbooks given to tenants which are also often online.

The Shelter website is also likely to cover the basic process for this, plus explain how local authorities deal with people who present themselves as homeless. This includes a section on how they assess an application, including the rules around 'intentional homelessness' if the council deem the applicants to have behaved in some way to facilitate this, such as not paying for their accommodation when they could have.

Their site also provides information on the current schemes to help homeowners stave off repossession, which I believe includes one where a social housing body buys the property and let's the home owners stay on as tenants. Explore your options there, too.

ILW

missyp123 wrote: »

Thankyou for your reply, Could you please explain as to why we couldnt do this?
They seem to think that siblings can take over tenancies. Is it our personal circumstances?

We will continue to look for rental anyway as we dont want to end up with no where

A sibling can sometimes take over a tenancy, but generally only if they have been living there. To be honest, council housing is not supposed to be allocated on a basis of who you know. Are you on the housing list?

squinty

Specifically section 91 of the 1985 Housing Act makes it clear that it is not possible to assign a secure tenancy from one person to another. There are exceptions to this laid out in legislation (mutual exchange, when ordered by a court, to someone who was entitled to suceed to the tenancy). None of these apply in your case.