Important Tenancy Ruling

The House of Lords has confirmed a recent decision of the Court of Appeal, which concluded that a previous tenancy which became a secure tenancy under the 1980 and 1985 Housing Acts can pass to the successor of a successor in certain circumstances.

The circumstances involved the son of a couple who had held a tenancy for many years. Prior to the coming into force of the Housing Act 1980, the father died, leaving his wife as the sole tenant by virtue of survivorship. When the Housing Act 1980 was enacted, her tenancy became a secure tenancy and subsequently came under the 1985 Housing Act. The mother later died and the local authority served a notice to quit on the couple’s son, who had lived with them in the three-bedroom property. Its claim to possession was made on the basis that the son could not have succeeded to the tenancy because his mother had been a successor under the 1985 Act. Accordingly, argued the authority, the son had no right to succeed to the tenancy, since the Act only permits a tenancy to be passed once to a successor.

The man’s late mother had become a sole tenant in 1969, long before the passage of the 1980 Act. The question at issue was whether the part of the legislation which states that it applies to a person who ‘has become the sole tenant’ means someone who has become a sole tenant at any time or only after the Act came into force. The House of Lords confirmed that the legislation could not refer to the history of the tenancy and had no retrospective effect.

This decision will apply in situations in which a widow or widower whose spouse died before 1980 lives with one or more of their children. With an ageing population, this is likely to be a not uncommon occurrence.