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Your rights as a tenant

As a secure tenant, you will have a number of rights. Introductory and demoted tenants will not have all of these.

Most of your rights are described below. There will be others. If there are any changes to your tenancy and you are not sure whether you need to tell us or not, please speak to your housing patch manager.

The right to live in your home without interference as long as you:

• do not break the conditions explained in your tenancy agreement
• live in your council home as your only or main home
• give us proper notice to quit if you want to give up the tenancy
• tell us in writing if you intend to be away from your home for 28 days or more. You must give us a forwarding address and number of someone to contact in an emergency. You need to tell us about this because we may think you have stopped using it and issue a notice to quit to repossess your home.

The right to a joint tenancy

This is a tenancy you share with another person or other people. It means that both or all of you are responsible for keeping to the conditions of the tenancy agreement. It also means you have equal rights to the tenancy and to stay in the property until the tenancy ends.

We will consider applications to add people to an existing tenancy if there is good reason, such as marriage, but this will only be if the rent account is up-to-date.

A court may transfer the tenancy from one partner to another if a couple separates.

To end a joint tenancy, either joint tenant can send us a notice to end the tenancy, whether or not the joint tenants have agreed. This will end the tenancy and all the tenants' rights. We can then repossess the property.

If you want to end a joint tenancy because of domestic violence, contact your area housing office. We will put you in touch with advice and support agencies. If a tenant causes the violence they have broken the conditions of the tenancy agreement, which gives us the right to evict them.

The right to succession (inheriting a tenancy)

If there is a joint tenancy and one partner dies, the person who is still living automatically has the right to keep the tenancy in their name only. Succession can only happen once, so an adult child cannot take over the tenancy if succession has already taken place. They would have to ask if the tenancy could be assigned to them as long as certain conditions are met.

If you are a sole tenant who has not succeeded to the tenancy, your tenancy can be passed to your spouse or civil partner when you die as long as they were living with you when you died. If you do not have a spouse or civil partner, a family member may succeed to the tenancy but they must have been living with you for at least 12 months before the date of succession

The right to assignment (giving your tenancy to another person)

You will need to ask our permission if you are a sole tenant and wish to assign your tenancy to your spouse, civil partner or other eligible member of your family, for example, because you have to move away and they cannot move with you.

Only someone who would be eligible to succeed to your tenancy on your death can be assigned the tenancy. This means that if you are a successor you will have no right to assign it. Also, if the tenancy is assigned there will be no further right of succession.

Swapping your home with official paperwork also means that the tenancy has been assigned.

Your rights to succession and assignment will be different if you are an introductory or demoted tenant.

You have other rights as a secure tenant as well:

The right to sublet

Unless you are an introductory tenant you can take in lodgers as long as you do not overcrowd your home.

• you may rent out part of your home or take in lodgers but you must tell us and get our permission in writing
• you must tell your area housing office the name, age and sex of the intended lodger or sub-tenant as well as the date they intend to move in
• you cannot rent out the whole house as this invalidates your secure tenancy
• if you receive housing benefit you must contact Nottingham City Council, because it may affect your entitlement to benefit.

The right to improve or alter your house

• you can carry out improvements to your home as long as you get written permission from us
• be sure about the amount and quality of the work you are able to carry out
• do not carry out large or complicated jobs as you may need to get planning and/or building regulations permission from Nottingham City Council as well which you will have to pay for
• if you do a job badly and it causes damage to your home, we will expect you to put it right and charge you for the work to repair it if necessary.

Find out more by reading our leaflet about making improvements to your home.

The right to compensation

• if you have carried out improvements to your home while you have been living there, you can claim some money from us at the end of your tenancy
• you must write to us between the date you hand in the notice to quit and up to 14 days after the end of the tenancy to claim this payment

Find out more by reading our leaflet about your right to compensation.

The right to buy your home

You have the right to buy your home if you have been a tenant for a period of time. You can get an application form and more information please from the Government website 'Directgov' which explains the whole scheme in detail.

For more information

Go to our page on useful links and documents to find out more.