Contact us 

We would like to be notified of a tenant’s death as soon as possible.

Email: housingservicesoffice@lbbd.gov.uk  

Phone: 020 8215 3000 

Information we will need:

• We will need to ask you for details of the person dealing with the tenant’s affairs, such as your name, address and telephone number. This is in case there is any later query. 
• We will also want to know if anyone has been appointed to deal with the tenant’s estate. 
• We will inform them of the rent due up until the time they return the keys of the property to us. 
• We will send letters about the outstanding rent to the tenant’s address unless we have been given contact details of the person appointed to manage the tenant’s affairs. 

Housing Benefit

When a tenant has been receiving Housing Benefit this will be withdrawn from the week after the date of death. 

This means the full rent will be payable from the week after the tenant’s death. 

A full rent charge varies from property to property, and this will be charged until the keys are returned. 

Succession 

When a tenant dies, their tenancy may be transferred to a qualifying family member or spouse/partner who is entitled to succeed (take over) the tenancy.   

A person can take over a tenancy by succession if:   

• You are a qualifying family member, spouse or civil partner.  
• The person has lived with the tenant continuously for the 12 months prior to the tenant’s death and 
• the tenancy has not been passed on before, so there have been no previous successions or assignments  

The Council’s Succession Policy is available here: 

Landlord Services Succession and Assignment of Tenancy Policy (PDF, 221 KB)

Please note that whilst you may succeed the tenancy, if you are not a spouse this does not guarantee that you will remain in the property. If the property is too large for your needs or adapted we may ask you to move to more suitable accommodation. 

To make an application for succession please reach out to us on the contact details at the top of the page.