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Section 10A: Power to order transfer of tenancy in certain cases

Housing Act 1988 · 1988 c. 50View on legislation.gov.uk

Part I: Rented Accommodation — chapter I: Assured Tenancies

This section applies on an application for an order for possession of a dwelling-house let on an assured tenancy if the court is satisfied that—

Ground 7B in Schedule 2 is established,
no other ground in that Schedule is established, or one or more grounds in Part 2 of that Schedule are established but it is not reasonable to make an order for possession on that ground or those grounds,
the tenancy is a joint tenancy, and
one or more of the tenants is a qualifying tenant.

In subsection (1)(d) "qualifying tenant" means a person who (within the meaning of Ground 7B) is not disqualified as a result of the person's immigration status from occupying the dwelling-house under the tenancy.

The court may, instead of making an order for possession, order that the tenant's interest under the tenancy is to be transferred so that it is held—

if there is one qualifying tenant, by the qualifying tenant as sole tenant, or
if there is more than one qualifying tenant, by all of them as joint tenants.

The effect of an order under this section is that, from the time the order takes effect, the qualifying tenant or tenants—

are entitled to performance of the landlord's covenants under the tenancy, and
are liable to perform the tenant's covenants under the tenancy.

The effect of an order under this section is that, from the time it takes effect, any other person who was a tenant under the tenancy before the order took effect—

ceases to be entitled to performance of the landlord's covenants under the tenancy, or
ceases to be liable to perform the tenant's covenants under the tenancy.

Subsection (5) does not remove any right or liability of the person which accrued before the order took effect.

An order under this section does not operate to create a new tenancy as between the landlord and the qualifying tenant or tenants.

In particular, if the tenancy is a fixed term tenancy, the term comes to an end at the same time as if the order had not been made.

About this text

This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.