Accounts

Guide

End your council tenancy

Publication date
25 June 2025

What to do when you want to end your council tenancy

You need to give us 28 days' notice if you want to move out of your council home and stop being a council tenant (end your council tenancy).

To start the process, phone us on 0300 300 0222 or email your local neighbourhood services office:

Once you contact us, we'll ask you to confirm your notice in writing.

If you do not give us 28 days' notice in writing, we'll charge you 4 weeks of rent from the date you return the keys to us.

Moving out of your council home

Make sure you've paid your rent

'Rent arrears' refers to any unpaid rent that you owe us.

Moving out with rent arrears may:

  • make it harder for you to get another council home in the future
  • have a negative effect on your credit rating.

We'll also have to mention your rent arrears on any reference requests we get from your future landlords.

To make sure you move out of your council home without rent arrears:

If you want to postpone your moving date

If you need to postpone your moving date and are already in your notice period, contact us as soon as you can so we can arrange a later date to end your tenancy.

Returning your keys to us

You'll need to return your keys to us at the time and place we've agreed with you. If you do not return your keys on time, you'll have to pay extra rent.

If you receive Housing Benefit and you're moving from one Renfrewshire Council home to another, your Housing Benefit cannot be paid for 2 homes at the same time unless there are special circumstances. Return your keys on time to make sure your Housing Benefit will be paid for the correct home.

Leaving the home in good condition

We expect you to leave the home in a good condition. We may charge you if:

  • there's damage to the home
  • you leave things behind that we need to remove
  • you made any unapproved changes to the home that we must reverse.

We'll only charge you for unapproved changes, not approved ones.

If you made approved improvements to the home, you may be entitled to compensation once you move out. To get this, you must have:

  • had our written permission to make the improvements before you started the work
  • kept any bills related to the improvements you made.

You'll need to email us at repairsandinvestment.hps@renfrewshire.gov.uk during your notice period if you'd like to ask for compensation.