Sections 74 to 76 – Persons qualified to succeed
225.A person can be qualified to succeed to an occupation contract as either a priority successor or a reserve successor. This will mean that in practice there may, in the fullness of time, be two successions to an occupation contract (but no more). That is because,
Where a person has succeeded as a priority successor then, in the event of his or her death, there can be one more succession (by a reserve successor).
But if a person has succeeded to the contract as a reserve successor (and this includes anyone who succeeded to the contract after the death of a person who was a priority successor), then no further succession is possible.
226.A priority successor is the spouse or civil partner (or those living together as spouse or civil partner) of the contract-holder, who occupied the dwelling as their only or principal home at the time of the contract-holder’s death.
227.A reserve successor is a family member who occupied the dwelling as their only or principal home at the time of the contract-holder’s death. A family member is defined, in section 250, as being:
the spouse or civil partner of the contract-holder, or someone living with the contract-holder as a spouse or civil partner;
the contract-holder’s parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece (see section 250).
228.A person who is related to the contract-holder in one of the ways mentioned in paragraph (b) above must also meet the basic residence condition in order to be a reserve successor, which is that throughout the 12 months preceding the contract-holder’s death the person lived in the dwelling that is subject to the occupation contract, or lived with the contract-holder. Such a requirement does not apply to a spouse or civil partner (or those living together as spouse or civil partner) succeeding as a reserve successor.
229.Where the contract-holder who has died was a priority successor in relation to the current occupation contract, then a person who is a member of the original contract-holder’s family will be a reserve successor. If the person is related to the original contract-holder in one of the ways mentioned in paragraph 227(b) above, for the purposes of calculating a 12 month period of living with the contract-holder, any periods living with the original contract-holder will be taken into account.
230.There are two classes of person unable to succeed to a contract. First, anyone under 18 years of age (because they cannot be a party to an occupation contract).
231.Secondly, those who occupied the dwelling (or part of it) under a sub-occupation contract at any time during the 12 month period before the contract-holder died. But where a sub-occupation contract has ended before the contract-holders death, and the sub-holder was the contract-holder’s spouse of civil partner, that person can still succeed to the contract (despite being a former sub-holder).