The Housing (Preservation of Right to Buy) Regulations 1989

171B.    Extent of preserved right: qualifying persons and dwelling-house.

(1) A person to whom this section applies has the preserved right to buy so long as he occupies the relevant dwelling-house as his only or principal home, subject to the following provisions of this Part.

(2) References in this Part to a “qualifying person” and “qualifying dwelling-house”, in relation to the preserved right to buy, are to a person who has that right and to a dwelling-house in relation to which a person has that right.

(3) The following are persons to whom this section applies–

(a)the former secure tenant, or in the case of a joint tenancy, each of them;

(b)a qualifying successor as defined in subsection (4); and

(c)a person to whom a tenancy of a dwelling-house is granted jointly with a person who has the preserved right to buy in relation to that dwelling-house.

(4) The following are qualifying successors for this purpose–

(a)where the former secure tenancy was not a joint tenancy and, immediately before his death, the former secure tenant was tenant under an assured tenancy of a dwelling-house in relation to which he had the preserved right to buy, a member of the former secure tenant’s family who acquired that assured tenancy under the will or intestacy of the former secure tenant;

(aa)where the former secure tenancy was not a joint tenancy, a member of the former secure tenant’s family to whom the former secure tenant assigned his assured tenancy of a dwelling-house in relation to which, immediately before the assignment, he had the preserved right to buy;

(b)a person who becomes the tenant of a dwelling-house in pursuance of–

(i)a property adjustment order under section 24 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973[1973 c. 18.] , or

(ii)an order under Schedule 1 to the Matrimonial Homes Act 1983[1983 c. 19.] transferring the tenancy,

in place of a person who had the preserved right to buy in relation to that dwelling-house.

(5) The relevant dwelling-house is in the first instance–

(a)in relation to a person within paragraph (a) of subsection (3), the dwelling-house which was the subject of the qualifying disposal;

(b)in relation to a person within paragraph (b) of that subsection, the dwelling-house of which he acquired the assured tenancy, became the assignee of the assured tenancy or became the tenant, as mentioned in subsection (4)(a), (aa) or (b);

(c)in relation to a person within paragraph (c) of subsection (3), the dwelling-house of which he became a joint tenant as mentioned in that paragraph.

(6) If a person having the preserved right to buy becomes the tenant of another dwelling-house in place of the relevant dwelling-house (whether the new dwelling-house is entirely different or partly or substantially the same as the previous dwelling-house) and the landlord is the same person as the landlord of the previous dwelling-house or, where that landlord was a company, is a connected company, the new dwelling-house becomes the relevant dwelling-house for the purposes of the preserved right to buy.

For this purpose “connected company” means a subsidiary or holding company within the meaning of section 736 of the Companies Act 1985[1985 c. 6.] .