Council tenancies

Find out which type of tenancy you can get if you apply for council housing in Brighton & Hove.

Your tenancy agreement

Your tenancy agreement is a legal document you have to sign before you move into your home.

It sets out the rights and responsibilities of:

  • you, as the tenant
  • Brighton & Hove City Council, as your landlord

These can change depending on the type of council tenancy you have.

You can read our council tenant handbook for more information about types of council tenancies.

To get information and advice about how to manage your tenancy, read our tenancy policy.

Introductory tenancies

If you're a new council tenant, you'll get an introductory tenancy for the first 12 months of moving into your home.

These 12 months are like a trial period. During this time you need to show you can keep to the conditions of your tenancy agreement.

You'll automatically become a secure tenant after 12 months unless we have:

  • extended your introductory tenancy for a further 6 months
  • started action to evict you
There are limits to what you can do with an introductory tenancy, for example you can't:

swap your home by mutual exchange

apply to buy your home

take in lodgers or sublet any part of your home

use your home for business purposes

make major improvement to your home

Secure tenancies

You'll get a secure tenancy automatically once you complete your introductory tenancy.

As a secure tenant, you can normally live in the property for as long as you like, unless you break the conditions of your tenancy agreement.

You can:

rent out rooms, but you can't sublet the whole property

apply to buy your home

apply to swap your home by mutual exchange

apply to make major improvements to your home

transfer your tenancy to someone else in some circumstances

Joint tenancies

You can apply as joint tenants if you are:

  • a married couple or civil partners
  • partners over 18 years of age who have lived together for 12 months or more
  • partners with a child or children

We'll normally allow a joint tenancy as long as you:

  • don't owe any rent at a previous property
  • haven't broken the conditions of a previous tenancy agreement

As joint tenants, you're both responsible if you fall behind on rent, or if you break the conditions of your tenancy agreement.

Either of you can end a joint tenancy by giving us notice.