In the event of a tenant’s death, the administrator or executor of their estate becomes responsible for their tenancy. This means that they will be responsible for paying rent, as well as any debt or damages, owed to the landlord. The rules about ending a tenancy are the same as they would have been had the tenant never died.

If the tenancy is a fixed-term tenancy, the executor of the estate is responsible for the tenancy until the end of the term. If they do not want this responsibility, they can request written permission to assign the tenancy to a new tenant (see our page on Sublet and Assignment), or try to negotiate a mutual agreement to end tenancy with the landlord.