For landlords

What happens to the tenancy if my tenant dies in England?

Guide · about 10 min read · Covers the law in England as at October 2026 · Reviewed on 28 October 2026

An assured tenancy does not end when the tenant dies. Where the tenant was the sole tenant, the tenancy can pass under section 17 of the Housing Act 1988. It can pass to a husband, wife or civil partner, or to a partner who was living with the tenant as if they were married. That person has to have been living in the home as their only or principal home immediately before the death. It does not pass that way if the tenant had already succeeded to it. Otherwise it devolves under the tenant's will or intestacy and becomes part of the estate. A tenancy held jointly carries on being held by the survivors. A possession claim on a Schedule 2 ground is a matter for the court, and since 1 May 2026 Ground 7 has in the ordinary case been closed off where the person who inherited the tenancy already lived there.

If this has just happened, there is a bereaved family involved as well as a tenancy. This guide is about an assured tenancy, which is what most private renting in England is let on. It covers England only. It is general information and not legal advice. VEYLO X is a software platform for renting and letting in England. Nothing below is a step to take without advice on the facts of the particular tenancy.

Does the tenancy end when the tenant dies?

No. Nothing in the Housing Act 1988 brings an assured tenancy to an end because the tenant has died. The tenancy carries on, and the question is who holds it.

Where the tenancy was held jointly, the question is answered before it is asked. Section 17(1) of the Housing Act 1988 is about the death of a sole tenant, and section 17(2)(b) of the same Act recognises a tenant who became the sole tenant by survivorship from a joint tenancy. A tenancy held by two or more people continues to be held by the survivor or survivors, and nothing passes under a will.

For a sole tenant there are two routes. Under section 17 of the Housing Act 1988 the tenancy can vest in a surviving spouse or civil partner, and the section says that where it does, the tenancy does not devolve under the tenant's will or intestacy. Where section 17 does not apply, the tenancy devolves under the will or intestacy and becomes an asset of the estate.

The second route is the reason Ground 7 of Schedule 2 to the same Act exists at all. Ground 7 is a possession ground for a tenancy that has devolved on a person, whom the Ground calls the new tenant, under the will or intestacy of the former tenant. A ground for recovering possession from a new tenant would make no sense if the tenancy had ended with the death.

Section 17(1)(a) used to reach only an assured periodic tenancy. The word periodic was omitted from it on 1 May 2026 by paragraph 28(a) of Schedule 2 to the Renters' Rights Act 2025, so it now reads as the death of the sole tenant under an assured tenancy. Section 2 of the same Act abolished assured shorthold tenancies, and our guide to the periodic tenancy explains what replaced them.

Who becomes the tenant if a spouse or civil partner was living there?

The surviving spouse or civil partner who was living there as their only or principal home becomes the tenant. Section 17(1) of the Housing Act 1988 applies where the sole tenant under an assured tenancy dies and, immediately before the death, the tenant's spouse or civil partner was occupying the dwelling-house as his or her only or principal home. On the death the tenancy vests in that person by virtue of the section.

An unmarried partner is included. Section 17(4) provides that a person who was living with the tenant as if they were a married couple or civil partners is to be treated as the tenant's spouse or civil partner. Where more than one person qualifies on that basis, section 17(5) provides that the one treated as the spouse or civil partner is decided by agreement or, in default of agreement, by the county court.

Two things follow. The first is that this happens by operation of law, so the tenancy does not pass under the will even if the will says otherwise, and the surviving partner holds the same tenancy on the same terms. The second is that it does not need the landlord's agreement.

It can only happen once. Section 17(1D) provides that subsection (1) does not apply if the tenant was himself a successor, as defined in section 17(2) or (3). Where the tenant who died had already succeeded to the tenancy, there is no second succession under subsection (1), and the tenancy devolves under the will or intestacy instead. Section 17(2)(b) puts a tenant who became the sole tenant by survivorship from a joint tenancy into that category as well.

Subsections (1A) and (1E) of section 17 set out further succession rules, including succession by someone other than a spouse or civil partner where the tenancy provides for it. Each of those two requires the landlord to be a private registered provider of social housing. Subsections (1B), (1C) and (7) were omitted on 1 May 2026, and subsection (1D) was amended on the same day, by paragraph 28 of Schedule 2 to the Renters' Rights Act 2025. That commencement carries the same limit as the one described further down this page: regulation 2 of S.I. 2026/421 brought it into force for the purposes of assured tenancies that are not social housing assured tenancies only. For a social housing assured tenancy, as section 145(8) of the Act defines it, the earlier version of section 17 is still the one to read. For a private landlord, section 17(1) is the provision that matters, read with the restriction in section 17(1D).

What happens if nobody succeeds to the tenancy?

The tenancy becomes part of the estate and is dealt with by the personal representative. Where there is no spouse or civil partner who meets the section 17(1) conditions, the tenancy devolves under the tenant's will or intestacy, and Ground 7 of Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988 calls the person it devolves on the new tenant.

There is often a gap before there is anyone to deal with. Under section 9 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925, where a person dies intestate their estate vests in the Public Trustee until the grant of administration, and the same applies where a person leaves a will but there is no executor with power to obtain probate. Section 9(3) is the part worth knowing: that vesting does not confer on the Public Trustee any beneficial interest in the property and does not impose any duty, obligation or liability in respect of it.

In plain terms, the Public Trustee is not a person to send a rent demand to. The two cases in section 9 are not the general rule, though. Where a will appoints an executor who can obtain probate, that executor is the personal representative from the death, and section 9 does not bite. It is where there is an intestacy, or no executor able to obtain probate, that the estate vests in the Public Trustee until a grant is made, and in that case there may be nobody to deal with for a time. That is a feature of the law rather than a sign that something has gone wrong.

Is the rent still payable after the tenant dies?

Yes. The tenancy continues, so the rent under it continues to fall due. What changes is who holds the tenancy, and therefore who holds the obligations in it.

Where the tenancy vested in a spouse or civil partner under section 17 of the Housing Act 1988, that person is now the tenant and the rent is theirs under the tenancy they hold. Where the tenancy devolved under the will or intestacy, it is an asset of the estate, and it is the personal representative, once appointed, who deals with it.

Whether a guarantor still has to pay is a separate question, and the Renters' Rights Act 2025 changed the answer to it.

Does a guarantor still have to pay rent after the tenant dies?

Not for rent for the period after the death, where an individual gave the guarantee on or after 1 May 2026. Section 16N(1)(a) of the Housing Act 1988 is about an individual who guarantees payment of the rent, so it is a rule about an individual guarantor. Section 19 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025 inserted section 16N into the Housing Act 1988. Where only one person is the tenant and that person dies, the guarantee is of no effect if, or to the extent that, it guarantees payment of guaranteed rent for the period beginning with the death of that person.

Two limits on that rule matter. Section 16N(1)(b) applies it only where the guarantor became a party to the guarantee on or after the commencement date, which is the day Chapter 1 of Part 1 of the Act came into force for the tenancy concerned, 1 May 2026 in the ordinary case. And the rule is about the period the rent covers, not the day it fell due. Section 16N(6) reaches the guaranteed rent for the rent period in which the death falls that is attributable to the time after the death, together with the guaranteed rent for every later period. Rent paid in advance can therefore cover days that fall on and after the death, and those days are within the rule.

The rent period in which the death falls is split by a formula in the section itself. Section 16N(7) sets it out as D divided by T, multiplied by R, where D is the number of days in that rent period falling on and after the day of the death, T is the total number of days in the period, and R is the guaranteed rent for it. Guaranteed rent is what the guarantee covers, which is not always the whole of the rent.

Joint tenancies work differently. Under section 16N(3) a guarantee of the rent of two or more tenants is released only once all of them have died. Under section 16N(4), where the guarantor is a family member of only one of those tenants, it is released from that family member's death. In each case the release reaches only the guaranteed rent for the period beginning with the relevant death. Guaranteed rent for an earlier period is not released by any of these subsections. Under section 16N(5), where the guarantor is a family member of more than one of those tenants, it stops having effect from the death of the last of those family members, even though another tenant is still living. Family member is defined widely in section 16P. It reaches a spouse, civil partner or co-habitee, and children, grandchildren, parents, grandparents, siblings, nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles and cousins. It also reaches those relatives of the guarantor's spouse, civil partner or co-habitee, and the spouses, civil partners and co-habitees of those relatives. Sibling there includes a sibling of the half-blood and a step-sibling. The list above is a summary, and section 16P is where the full definition is. Section 16P(4) provides that where a person is a family member of the guarantor when the guarantee is entered into, or becomes one afterwards, they are treated as a family member at all times after that. The relationship has to exist at the time the guarantee is entered into, or arise later. One that had already ended before the guarantee was given is not brought in by that subsection. Section 16P(1) applies the rule whether or not the guarantee is in writing, and whether or not it sits in the lease.

Our guide on whether a guarantor is needed to rent in England covers how guarantees work during a tenancy.

Is the tenancy still an assured tenancy after the death?

Not always, and this is the condition the rest of the answer turns on. Section 1(1) of the Housing Act 1988 makes a tenancy an assured tenancy "if and so long as" the tenant is an individual, the tenant or at least one joint tenant "occupies the dwelling-house as his only or principal home", and the tenancy is not one that is excluded.

The words to notice are "if and so long as". The occupation condition in section 1(1)(b) is a continuing one. It is not a test applied once, at the start of the tenancy.

Where the tenancy vests in a spouse, civil partner or unmarried partner under section 17, that person was living in the home and goes on living there, so the condition can go on being met. Where the tenancy devolves under the will or intestacy and nobody who holds it occupies the dwelling-house as an only or principal home, the condition is not met. The tenancy is then no longer an assured tenancy, and it continues as an ordinary contractual tenancy.

That matters for two reasons. The first is that the possession machinery in the Act is written for an assured tenancy: section 8(1) says the court "shall not entertain proceedings for possession of a dwelling-house let on an assured tenancy" unless a notice has been served or the court dispenses with one, and the Schedule 2 grounds work through section 7 on the same footing. The second is section 5(1), which provides that an assured tenancy cannot be brought to an end by the landlord except in the ways it lists, and ends by saying that "the service by the landlord of a notice to quit is of no effect in relation to an assured tenancy".

This guide does not say which of those positions applies to any particular tenancy. That depends on facts a guide cannot see, including who holds the tenancy and where they live. What should be done about any of it, and whether anything should be served, is a matter for advice on the tenancy in front of you.

Can I get the property back, and how long do I have?

A possession claim on a Schedule 2 ground is decided by the court, and it is available only while the tenancy is an assured tenancy, for the reason in the section above. The ground for a tenancy that passed under a will or intestacy is Ground 7 of Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988. Proceedings on it must be begun not later than twelve months after the death. The Ground lets the court direct that the twelve months run instead from the date it finds the landlord became aware of the death. That is a different starting point, not a power to extend the period. Ground 7 sits in Part I of that Schedule, the grounds on which the court must order possession where the ground is made out. The death itself gives a landlord no right to possession, and the order is the court's to make.

There is also a rule about serving a notice on someone who has died, and it is often mistaken for a way of getting a property back. It is not. Section 18 of the Law of Property (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1994 provides that a notice affecting land, which would have been authorised or required to be served on a person but for their death, is sufficiently served before a grant of representation has been filed if it is addressed to "The Personal Representatives of" the deceased, naming them, and left at or sent by post to their last known place of residence or business in the United Kingdom, and a copy, similarly addressed, is served on the Public Trustee. Section 18(3) adds that this method is not available where another enactment or a written agreement requires a different method or prohibits this one.

So what section 18 settles is whether a notice counts as having been served. It is not a ground for possession, it does not end a tenancy, and it gives nobody a right to go in. GOV.UK sets out the administrative side of that section for England. It says the tenancy is transferred temporarily to the Public Trustee, that written notice has to be given and registered with the Public Trustee, that a property cannot be taken back automatically even if the tenancy was due to end, and that a landlord may be fined for trying to repossess a property without following the rules. It gives the registration fee as £40, and says a decision usually arrives within 15 working days. That decision is the Public Trustee's decision on whether to register the notice, and nothing more.

This guide does not say which route applies to any given case. A tenancy can also come to an end by agreement rather than through a possession claim at all.

Ground 7 requires that the proceedings for the recovery of possession are begun not later than twelve months after the death of the former tenant or, if the court so directs, after the date on which, in the opinion of the court, the landlord or, in the case of joint landlords, any one of them became aware of the former tenant's death. The later starting point is in the court's hands. It is not a second twelve months that can be counted from the day the news arrives.

The change made on 1 May 2026 is the one most worth knowing. Ground 7 now provides that if the new tenant is occupying the dwelling-house as the new tenant's only or principal home immediately before the death of the former tenant, an order for possession on the Ground may not be made unless the tenancy has previously devolved on the former tenant under a will or intestacy, whenever that devolution occurred, or the tenancy is a special tenancy immediately before the death. Special tenancy is defined in the Ground itself, and it has five limbs. Two of them require the landlord to be a private registered provider of social housing: social housing, and a rent-to-buy tenancy. In the social housing case that is the same class the amendment has not been commenced for, so that limb has nothing to do in a tenancy the amended Ground reaches. The other three do not require a private registered provider, and each carries its own conditions: supported accommodation within paragraph 12 of Schedule 2, a tenancy where the former tenant's occupation of the dwelling-house is in pursuance of a local housing authority's duty to the tenant under section 193 of the Housing Act 1996, and a tenancy meeting the conditions in paragraphs (a), (b), (d) and (e) in the first paragraph of Ground 5H. So the question is about those conditions, and the Ground is where they are set out.

So where a family member who was already living in the home as their only or principal home inherits the tenancy, Ground 7 is not available against them. There are two exceptions. One is where the tenant who died had themselves inherited the tenancy. The other is where the tenancy is a special tenancy. That is a different position from the one older guidance describes, and it is the part of this subject most often out of date in writing published before May 2026.

These words were substituted by paragraph 23 of Schedule 1 to the Renters' Rights Act 2025, brought into force by regulation 2 of S.I. 2026/421. That regulation is worth reading for what it does not cover. It commences those provisions on 1 May 2026 "for the purposes of assured tenancies that are not social housing assured tenancies only". Section 145(8) of the Act defines a social housing assured tenancy as an assured tenancy of social housing, within the meaning of Part 2 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008, where the landlord is a private registered provider of social housing. So the amended Ground 7 reaches an ordinary private letting and has not been commenced for that social housing class. The savings in Schedule 6 to the Act mean an older case can also still fall to be read under the previous wording.

Ground 7 also deals with what happens if rent keeps arriving. It provides that the acceptance by the landlord of rent from a new tenant after the death of the former tenant is not to be regarded as creating a new tenancy. That is subject to one thing: it does not hold where the landlord agrees in writing to a change, compared with the tenancy before the death, in the amount of the rent, the period or length of term of the tenancy, the premises which are let, or any other term of the tenancy.

A claim on a Schedule 2 ground follows a notice under section 8 of the Housing Act 1988. The table in section 8(4AA) gives the period for Ground 7 as two months beginning with the date of service, and section 8(3)(c) requires the notice to tell the tenant that proceedings will not begin later than twelve months from the date it was served.

What	How long	Where it comes from
Notice period for Ground 7	Two months beginning with the date of service. Where a notice specifies more than one ground, and does not specify Ground 7A or 14, section 8(4AA) takes the longest period for any ground in it. Where a notice does specify Ground 7A or 14, section 8(4) applies instead, and the date must not be earlier than the date of service	Housing Act 1988, section 8(4AA)
Life of a section 8 notice	Proceedings must not begin later than twelve months from service	Housing Act 1988, section 8(3)(c)
Deadline for beginning Ground 7 proceedings	Not later than twelve months after the death, or from the date the landlord became aware of it if the court so directs	Housing Act 1988, Schedule 2, Ground 7
Succession under section 17(1)	Once only, and not where the tenant was already a successor	Housing Act 1988, section 17(1D)

Entering the property is a separate question from possession, and our guide on when a landlord can enter a property covers it.

What happens to the deposit?

The deposit stays where it is. A deposit taken for an assured tenancy has to be dealt with under an authorised scheme, with the prescribed information given to the tenant, under section 213 of the Housing Act 2004. The death of the tenant does not change that and does not return the money to the landlord.

Release of the deposit, and any deduction from it, is settled with whoever is entitled to the tenant's interest in it. In the ordinary case that is the personal representative of the estate. Where the tenancy vested in a successor under section 17, it is the successor who holds the tenancy. The schemes offer a free dispute resolution service, and GOV.UK says both sides have to agree to use it and that its decision is final. Where a deposit was not protected by an approved scheme, GOV.UK points to a county court claim instead. Schedule 10 to the Housing Act 2004 is where the scheme arrangements, including dispute resolution, come from. Our guide to how deposit protection works sets out the ordinary end-of-tenancy route.

Does VEYLO X deal with any of this?

VEYLO X is a software platform for renting and letting in England. It keeps a landlord's own tenancy and compliance records, including the dates on them, in one place. It does not act in a possession claim, does not administer an estate, and does not decide who holds a tenancy or what a court will do. Those are matters for the people involved, their advisers and the court.

Common questions

Does an assured tenancy end when the tenant dies?

No. Nothing in the Housing Act 1988 ends an assured tenancy because the tenant has died. Where the tenant was the sole tenant, it either vests in a surviving spouse, civil partner or unmarried partner under section 17, or it devolves under the will or intestacy and becomes an asset of the estate. Where it was held jointly, it carries on being held by the surviving joint tenant or tenants.

Is the tenancy still an assured tenancy after the tenant dies?

Not always. Section 1(1)(b) of the Housing Act 1988 makes a tenancy an assured tenancy only "if and so long as" the tenant, or at least one joint tenant, occupies the dwelling-house as an only or principal home. Where the tenancy devolves on the estate and nobody holding it occupies it on that footing, the condition is not met and the tenancy continues as an ordinary contractual tenancy instead.

Does the twelve months for Ground 7 run from the death or from when I found out?

From the death. Ground 7 of Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988 requires proceedings to be begun not later than twelve months after the death. A later start, running from the date the landlord became aware of the death, applies only if the court so directs. It is not a second twelve months counted from the day the landlord found out.

Does a guarantor still owe rent after the tenant dies?

Not guaranteed rent for the period beginning with the death, where an individual became a party to the guarantee on or after the commencement date for that tenancy. Section 16N of the Housing Act 1988, inserted by section 19 of the Renters' Rights Act 2025, makes the guarantee of no effect for that rent. The line is drawn by the period the rent covers, not by the day it fell due. Where the tenancy is held jointly, it takes the death of all the tenants, or of the guarantor's family members among them.

Can Ground 7 be used if the person who inherited the tenancy already lived in the home?

Usually not. Ground 7 of Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988 provides that an order for possession on the Ground may not be made where the new tenant was occupying the home as their only or principal home immediately before the death. There are two exceptions. One is where the tenancy had previously devolved on the former tenant under a will or intestacy. The other is where the tenancy is a special tenancy, which the Ground defines by reference to social, rent-to-buy, supported and local authority duty cases.

Sources

The primary sources behind this guide. Where the law and a summary disagree, the law is what counts.

This article is general information, not legal advice. It covers England only and reflects the position as at October 2026. For your own situation, take advice, and consider free advice from Citizens Advice or Shelter.

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