Part of: Your council tenancy
When a tenant wants to move out of their home, they must contact their housing officer to give us notice in writing that they wish to terminate their tenancy and request a termination form.
Tenants must give us at least 4 weeks’ notice expiring on a Monday unless they are moving to another Haringey Council property in which case they don’t need to give 4 weeks’ notice. They must also return all keys promptly and fully clear the property, leaving it in a clean and acceptable condition.
If we need to evict a secure tenant following a breach of the tenancy agreement for rent arrears, this will be considered by our evictions panel. For cases of anti-social behaviour (ASB), our head of tenancy management will review and sign off these cases. In all cases, we can seek a possession order from the County Court to end a tenancy.
We encourage the following tenants to surrender their council tenancy where:
In each case this would mean they were not using the property as their ‘only or principal home’.
The secure status of a tenancy is lost if a tenant ceases to occupy it as their only or principal home. Occupation by a non-tenant spouse or civil partner qualifies as occupation by the tenant spouse as long as the parties remain married or in a civil partnership.
An introductory tenancy or extended tenancy will be ended and not become a secure tenancy if the tenant breaks the tenancy conditions or made a false or misleading statement to obtain the tenancy. This would be ended by serving a Notice of Possession Proceedings.
We will only evict one of our tenants where there have been serious breaches of their tenancy agreement and all possible options have been explored for preserving the tenancy, including providing support to the tenant.
If one joint tenant ends the tenancy, the tenancy will end, even if the other joint tenant has not asked for the tenancy to end.
We will then consider whether to offer a sole tenancy to the remaining tenant. This decision will be based on the remaining tenant’s current circumstances, for example whether they are a victim/survivor of domestic abuse perpetrated by the other joint tenant, any vulnerabilities or custody of children. We will ensure that victim/survivors of domestic abuse are offered suitable accommodation in safe areas.
If a tenant dies, the tenancy can sometimes be transferred to their partner or, for tenancies started before 1 April 2012, another eligible family member. This is known as succession. If there is no eligible family member wishing to succeed the tenancy, we will end the tenancy by serving a Notice to Quit.
We recognise that tenants may be away from their homes for an extended period for several reasons and in accordance with their tenancy agreement they must notify us of this. Where we believe that the tenant may have abandoned the property we will take appropriate action, in accordance with the legislative requirements and our abandonment procedure. This may include us taking possession and the property being recovered without the abandoning tenant being aware.
Outgoing tenants are expected to clear their belongings before the end of the written notice period.
If they leave belongings behind, we may serve a notice under the Torts (Interference with Goods) Act 1977. This allows us to remove and/or dispose of these belongings. The cost of doing so may be recharged to tenants.
The outgoing tenant is responsible for removing all personal possessions from the property by the end of the written notice period.
Following evictions or where a tenant dies, we will store items for 28 days.