Your tenancy

Although you won’t need to think about your tenancy every day, it’s important to understand the key parts of the agreement you’ve signed with us, so that everything runs smoothly. 

Each of our community areas has its own housing officer, who will be out and about in your neighbourhood. This means you have a dedicated person to contact, especially for more complicated enquiries, and they will be able to visit you at home to provide any support you need from us.

You can speak to your housing officer about anything – from your rent account and tenancy, to neighbourhood issues and anti-social behaviour.

You can find out who your housing officer is here.

Your tenancy agreement sets out our responsibilities as your landlord, as well as your legal rights and responsibilities as a tenant.

These include paying your rent and other charges on time, allowing us access for repairs and safety checks (such as an annual gas safety inspection), and ensuring that you do not cause nuisance or annoyance to other people living in your neighbourhood.

For a full introduction to what you can expect from us as a landlord, as well as information on what we expect from you, check out our service standards.

You can manage many aspects of your tenancy online, including reporting repairs, checking your rent account and making payments.

If something changes in your household which could affect your tenancy – such as a birth, death, marriage or relationship breakdown – it’s up to you to let us know. It’s also important that we have up-to-date contact details for the people on your tenancy.

You can update your tenancy details with us using your online account or by giving us a call on 0800 218 2247.

To update your name on our records, you will also need to fill out this form to let us know: Notification of tenant's change of name.  

Assignment is when a tenant passes on their tenancy to another eligible member of their household. This will depend on the type of tenancy you hold, so you should speak with your housing officer to see if you are eligible. We will then need permission from both parties (you, and the household member you would like to assign the tenancy to).

To apply to assign your tenancy, both you and the household member you wish to assign the tenancy to, will need to complete one of our assignment application forms (see sections which apply to you) and return them to housing@wcht.org.uk or to our offices on Clarendon Road.

Succession is the right to inherit a tenancy when the previous tenant has passed away, leaving a spouse, partner or other family member in the property. 

There are many variables that may affect someone’s eligibility to inherit the tenancy, for example:

• Whether the tenancy agreement allows for family members to succeed a tenancy
• Whether you are a spouse or partner to the deceased 
• Whether you have lived in the property, as your main and principal home, for 12 months prior to the death of the tenant
• Whether the tenancy has already been inherited; this can only happen once 
• Whether the deceased was the last remaining of two joint tenants; if there was already a succession from joint to sole tenancy, there cannot be another

Please note that the application for succession must be made within three months of the death of the tenant.

We have created a detailed FAQ document which goes through the entire succession process as simply as possible – please have a read of it before you apply. We understand there are a lot of complexities when it comes to succession, so please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. You can contact the Housing team by emailing housing@wcht.org.uk or calling 0800 218 2247.

If you are interested in succeeding a tenancy, please answer the initial questions below and a member of our Housing team will get back to you regarding your eligibility and next steps. 

How we use your data

Once you've filled in this form, we'll use your data to process your application. We will then store your data for a limited time to help us with our work. For more information about how we handle your data, please read our Your Privacy Matters booklet.