Keep your household details up to date - it could protect your family’s rights
We are reminding all tenants of the importance of keeping their household details up to date.
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It is important that we know who is living in your home. This helps us provide the right services, contact the right people where appropriate, and make sure tenancy rights are properly protected.
The law around Scottish Secure Tenancies was updated by the Housing (Scotland) Act 2014, with changes taking effect from 1 November 2019. These changes introduced important notification and residency requirements for things like assignation, subletting, joint tenancies and succession.
This means tenants should tell us when someone moves into or out of their home. In some situations, such as someone applying to take over a tenancy or succeed to a tenancy after a tenant dies, the law looks at how long that person has been living in the property as their only or principal home. However, the qualifying period generally only starts once the Association has been told that the person is living there. Put simply, if we are not told that someone is living in the property as their only or principal home, they may not qualify for these rights later - even if they have been living there.
From 1 August 2026, the law is changing again slightly for succession cases. Succession is the legal process that may allow someone living in the home to take over a Scottish Secure Tenancy when the tenant dies. From that date, the qualifying period for succession will reduce from 12 months to 6 months where the tenant’s death happens on or after 1 August 2026.
This does not remove the need to tell us who is living in your home. It remains very important that your household details are accurate and up to date.
You should let us know if:
- someone moves into your home;
- someone moves out;
- a child, partner, family member or carer comes to live with you;
- someone is staying with you temporarily but this later becomes permanent;
- your household circumstances change in any other way.
Tenants can check the household members we currently have recorded by logging into the tenant portal. If anything is missing or incorrect, please contact us as soon as possible so we can update our records.
Updating your household details does not automatically give someone tenancy rights, and it does not automatically add them as a joint tenant. However, failing to keep us informed may affect whether someone can qualify for certain rights in future, including assignation, a joint tenancy or succession.
If you are unsure whether you need to tell us about a change, please get in touch. It is always better to check.
You can update your household details by logging into the tenant portal or by contacting us directly.