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Ending your Tenancy

What Action must I take to End my Tenancy?

Moving to another house or for other reasons: you together with any joint tenant, must give us at least 28 days notice in writing.

You must tell us at the same time if you normally live in the house with your husband, wife or partner and if so, their agreement is also required. In all cases, we will ask you to complete a termination notice with relevant information, including your future address. We will then provide you with details of the actions which you should take and which the Council will take. The termination date for your tenancy will normally be 28 calendar days, from the Sunday following receipt of your written notice but in certain circumstances we may make the termination date less than the 28 days normally required.

What Do I Do Before I Move Out of the House?

When we receive notification of your intention to move out of your house, we will write to you confirming the termination date for your tenancy and ask you to clear the house and hand in all sets of keys to your local Housing office, by 10am on the Monday following the agreed termination date.

If your keys are returned any later, you will become liable for further rental payments. If you fail to return your keys, we will make arrangements to change the locks and the cost of this work will be recharged to yourself.

Prior to you leaving your house you should:

  • Leave the house in a clean and tidy condition.
  • Remove all your belongings.
  • Make sure any lodgers or sub-tenants leave with you.
  • Allow us reasonable access to your house before you move out, to inspect the house and to allow prospective tenants to view it.
  • Remove any fixtures and fittings you have installed (without the Council's written permission) and put right any damage caused.
  • Agree fixtures, fittings, and floor coverings to be left in the house for an incoming tenant to purchase and/or take over, provided appropriate conditions are met.
  • Check with us to make sure that you have paid all payments.
  • Apply for any compensation you may be entitled to under clause 5.23 of your Scottish Secure Tenancy Agreement (or do so within 21 days of the end of the tenancy).
  • Leave the house in good decorative order.
  • Do any repairs or other work which you are required to do.
  • Provide us with a forwarding address, unless there is good reason for not doing so.

Inspection of House

After you have returned your keys to us we will arrange for a full inspection of the house to be done to identify any repairs required prior to the house being let to a new tenant. If we find any repairs which are your responsibility or have to remove any of your property / possessions left in the house, then we will recharge you for this and you will receive an invoice for the relevant costs in due course.

Meter Readings

Please remember before you move out of the house to contact your electricity and/or gas supplier, to arrange for final readings to be taken up to the date when you move out. You should also arrange to have your telephone disconnected and for your mail to be redirected to your new address.

What Other Ways Can My Tenancy Be Ended?

Buying Your House

If you buy your house from us, your tenancy will terminate on the date of transfer of ownership of the house to yourself. You will be notified by us of the date when this will occur and you will be due to make rental and other payments up to that date.

Abandoning Your House

The Council may also terminate your tenancy if we have reasonable grounds for believing that you have abandoned your house. In this situation we may forcibly enter your house to make it secure and serve on you a Notice of Abandonment stating that we believe that you have abandoned your house. This Notice requires you to provide us with written notice on or before the specified date. If we do not hear from you by then or we have reasonable grounds for believing that you have abandoned your house, we can terminate your tenancy by serving a second Notice on you. Following this, if you have left any of your property or possessions in the house, we will advise you of what is left and the procedure for reclaiming it, and store it if the value justifies it for up to six months. If you fail to contact us or reclaim your property and possessions by then, we can dispose of them as we see fit.

Eviction

We can also take action through the Sheriff Court to obtain an order for your eviction from your house under Section 14 of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2002 on any of the grounds contained within Schedule 2 of that Act. Full details of these grounds are contained in paragraph 6.3 of your Scottish Secure Tenancy Agreement.

In considering any action raised, the Sheriff must be satisfied that it is reasonable to make an order for eviction without alternative accommodation being provided, or grant an order for eviction on the understanding that we offer you a suitable alternative house as defined under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001.

Joint Tenancy

A joint tenant may at any time, end his or her interest in the tenancy by giving 4 weeks notice to us and the other joint tenant.

If we believe a joint tenant has abandoned the property we will give that tenant 4 weeks notice and proceed to terminate that tenants interest in the property. Further information is provided in Section 6 of the Secure Tenancy Agreement.

What Happens if the Tenant Dies?

In the event of the death of the tenant, the tenancy will be inherited by one of the following people:-

  • The husband or wife (or partner) of the tenant, if the house was their only and principal home for the 6 months previous to the tenant's death.
  • A joint tenant, if the house was his or her only principal home on the tenant's death.
  • A member of the tenant's family (who is at least 16) who lived with the tenant in the house as his or her only or principal home on the death of the tenant. This condition only applies if no one qualifies under the two cases above.
  • A carer aged at least 16 where the house was their only or principal home and they had given up their previous home to care for the tenant

Further information on this is provided in Section 7 of your Secure Tenancy Agreement.

The tenancy can only be inherited twice under the provisions detailed above. If the tenancy has already been inherited twice, a third death will normally end the tenancy. This will not happen if there is a surviving joint tenant whose Scottish Secure Tenancy Agreement will continue.

If no one qualifies for the tenancy under the provisions detailed above, we have the discretion to transfer the tenancy to another person. In this situation we may agree to transfer the tenancy to someone who had a close relationship with the tenant (e.g. relative, partner, carer) and lived with the tenant in the house as his or her only or principal home at the time of the tenant's death and has no other accommodation available to him/her which it would be reasonable to expect him/her to occupy. If we agree to transfer the tenancy under these conditions, it will be considered as a start of a new tenancy and not as a succession to the previous tenancy.