Council tenancy

[clair3934]

can anyone help me my neighbours mother has just died and they live in a council owned property the problem is that the tenancy has already passed once from her father to her mother and she is worried that the council will not pass it again or give her a new tanancy on this property we do not want her to be moved she is a lovely person she has been very friendly and helpfull since we bought our house and moved in 2 years ago, does anyone else have any experience with this sort of thing? we live in Bristol

[raysparx]

Hi clair, I believe your friend is right in her thinking,most councils will only transfer the tenancy once,ie: husband to wife or vice versa,it is unlikely to pass down to children, I hope I am wrong but I do a lot of sub contract work for a council, I know of one instance where it passed to a daughter but that was because she was in her 40s and had been born in the house, good luck, take care, Ray

[katerich48]

Although, now councils do pass tenancies down to children...this one has been passed down already to the mother... In my experience most councils will take the property back as it is usually too big for one person and they then give the child a smaller flat - It often depends on how desperate they are for accomodation on whether they move you on or not. She could try,, not telling the council about her mothers death, and see how long she gets away with it. Housing assoc are sometimes a bit more sympathetic..

[badhorsey]

Clair - I hope this answer doesn't find you too late.

Fight back! The people working in housing are, by and large, pen-pushers with not an ounce of compassion. Write to your local councillor and get them involved - believe me, local authorities will jump when the political arm takes an interest.

If that gets you no joy, go to your MP. Escalate the issue as high as you can and don't give in. The worst that can happen is that someone along the line will say no - but there is always the option to appeal to a higher authority.

Good luck.

[clair3934]

Blimey Badhorsey your over a year too late! I did get our local councillor involved and and we got a petition of local people together so my neighbour has not been forced to move out the tenancy is now in her name. Thanks for the belated advice though.