Your tenancy doesn’t automatically end when you move out of your property. It’s a legal agreement and can be ended only if you give us proper notice, or through a court order. Before you decide to leave your home, contact us to discuss all your options or look at our find a home information.

If you aren’t moving to another housing association or council property you must give us at least 28 days’ notice that you intend to move out. If you don’t do this, you’ll still be responsible for the rent after you leave until this notice period has finished. If there are special circumstances that stop you giving us the required notice, please contact us.

End your tenancy

Write us a short letter or complete a Notice of Termination of Tenancy Form, available from your local office. The letter or form must be signed by each person who signed the original tenancy agreement, unless they’ve already left the household. If you have a lodger or sub-tenant, you must make sure they leave the property as well. You can’t pass your tenancy onto someone else. If you leave anyone in the property, we will evict them.

Once your notice is received

We’ll arrange for a member of staff to visit you. They’ll inspect your property, note any repairs needed, and tell you what you must do before you leave. If you move out before the end of your notice period, we’ll still charge you for the full rent up to the date your tenancy ends. If you receive housing benefits, this will stop when you leave and you will be personally liable for any further payments due to us.

If you’ve made improvements or alterations to your property

If you’ve improved your home and you got our permission before you did the work, you may be able to claim compensation. Contact us to find out more.

You must ensure that any damaged or missing fixtures and fittings are replaced, and that the property is reasonably well decorated, before you leave. If you alter your home without our permission, we may charge you for putting it back to its original condition or for repairing any damage you have caused.

If you owe rent

You must discuss the situation straight away with us. We will ask you to clear any rent you owe before you move. In exceptional cases where this is impossible, we must arrange for you to continue paying the debt after you have moved. If you move without clearing the debt, we will continue to take action to claim back the money you owe. We can take legal action through the courts. If successful, this can affect your credit rating and ability to take out a loan or a hire-purchase agreement. It may also affect your ability to be housed in the future.

Handing in your keys

You should take all your keys, including the electrical supply key and gas card if you have them, into your local office by midday on the Monday after the last day of your tenancy. If you return the keys late, we will charge rent for another week. Contact us if you need to make a special arrangement. Never leave the keys in the property.

We prefer tenants to hand in the keys themselves. But if you can’t, you can ask someone else to do it for you. You must give them a signed letter saying that they have permission to hand in your keys. You must also have completed a Notice of Termination Form. If they don’t have a letter with them, we’ll ask them to write and sign a letter on your behalf.

If you leave without notice, we may decide you have abandoned the property and take legal steps to repossess it. Until the court grants us possession, you will be responsible for the rent and any other charges. If you intend to go away for a long time please tell us using the ’equiries form’.

Joint tenants

If you’re a joint tenant and one of you ends the tenancy, the whole tenancy ends. By law, we don’t have to allow the other tenant to stay. We’ll decide based on the circumstances. If a joint tenant dies or a couple splits up, we have different procedures. Contact us for guidance.

Bereaved relatives of tenants

If you’re the next of kin or executor of a tenant who has died, contact us for guidance on ending the tenancy. Please give us a copy of the death certificate. If you aren’t the next of kin, please give us details of the next of kin or executor. Housing benefits stop on the date of the tenant’s death, and rent due must be paid from any money they have left until we get the keys back.

We will also serve a ‘Notice to Quit’ on the executor or next of kin, giving a date by which we need the property to be emptied.

Some people have the right to take over (’succeed to’) the tenancy after a death.

• A partner can succeed to the tenancy as long as they were living at the property, and it was their main home, when the other tenant died.
• A family member of the tenant who has died can succeed to the tenancy if they have lived at the property for the previous 12 months.
• We may consider other situations where there is no legal right to succeed to the tenancy.

Any claim to succeed to the tenancy must be made within a month of the tenant’s death. The tenancy can be succeeded to only once. Contact us for help.

End-of-tenancy checklist

Before you move out

• arrange removal – if you are hiring a removal company, get at least 2 quotes and whether they provide free packing boxes
• contact the Post Office about redirecting your mail. Please note that we can’t forward your mail to your new address
• remove all your belongings from your home, including from the loft, garden, garage and sheds. We will charge you to dispose of any goods you leave behind
• clear all floor coverings that we didn’t supply, and white goods such as fridges, freezers and washing machines
• leave the property clean and tidy
• complete any repairs that you are responsible for and report any repairs that we must do
• tell the Council Tax department, and any relevant benefits departments, your new address
• tell us which companies supply the gas and electricity to your property
• if you have a key for electricity or a card for gas, please hand them in to the local office when you bring the keys
• tell other companies that you are moving, such as TV Licensing, telephone operators, insurance etc.
• tell your doctor and children’s school if you are moving away from the local area

On the day you move out

• read any gas, electricity and water meters. Turn them off before you go
• make sure you have arranged to pay all the bills, including your phone bill
• ensure you have left the property free from rubbish and removed your belongings. We will consider all property left as rubbish and throw it away
• check you have locked all the doors and windows
• return your keys.

More help

Contact us today. We’ll help you any way we can. For independent advice, check out Directgov or Shelter.