Common Allocation Policy for Tees Valley Lettings Partnership

Applications can be registered online by accessing the digital lettings platform or by contacting one of the partners for an appointment.

Once a completed application is received, we will ask for some documents to prove identity, address, and circumstances. The application will then be assessed and placed in the band that reflects the circumstances of the household. See the priority bands section for how we assess housing need.

Applicants will be allowed to apply for advertised homes both for rent and low-cost home ownership options. Our adverts will include good quality information about the property features, to allow applicants to make informed choices about which homes they would like to live in. The information on the lettings platform will also include links to other useful information.

Equality and fairness

We will ensure that our policies and practices do not discriminate in line with the Equality Act 2010. We will take measures to ensure that people with disabilities have equal access to housing opportunities with the population as a whole.

We will ensure that all applicants have access to information about the service and equal opportunity to register, apply for and receive offers of accommodation. We will do this by providing help, in the applicant's preferred way, where the applicant may have difficulty completing paperwork, applying for a property, or accessing our online services.

Affordability

Applicants will only be offered properties which they can afford. This is partly linked to welfare reform which may reduce income and aims to reduce hardship should personal circumstances change. When an applicant is offered a property, they will be asked to complete an affordability assessment to make sure they can afford the rent and other associated costs, to make sure that the tenancy is sustainable.

Applicants who fail affordability checks will be offered support, advice and assistance and may be signposted to external agencies such as Citizens Advice.

Changes in circumstances

It is the responsibility of the applicant or their advocate to tell us about any change in circumstances that could affect their application.

Keeping the partnership register up to date

Applicants with a priority for housing will be reviewed regularly to ensure they are not having difficulties with the scheme and to check that they are applying for suitable properties as they come up.

Accounts that have been inactive for a period of 12 months will be contacted via their preferred method to see if they still want to be considered for housing.

Failure to respond to a review may result in closure of the application or removal of a priority band.

Cancelling applications

Applications will be cancelled in the following circumstances:

• a request has been received from the applicant or their named advocate
• there is no activity in the given time and no response received to a review
• the applicant is deceased and they were the sole applicant
• the applicant has bought their property through Right to Buy or Right to Acquire after applying for rehousing
• an applicant has been assessed as nonqualifying - see the Appendix 3 Non-qualifying person and suspended applicants section
• it is discovered that the applicant has given false or misleading information in their application
• there has been no response to correspondence sent to them

Applicants will be given the reason why their application has been cancelled and informed of their right to request a review of the decision.

Giving false information or deliberately withholding information

It is a criminal offence for anyone applying for housing from a housing authority to give false information knowingly or recklessly or knowingly withhold information which is relevant to their housing application (Section 171 of the Housing Act 1996).

Anyone found guilty of such an offence may be fined up to £5,000 and could lose the tenancy if they have been rehoused because of providing false information or deliberately withholding information.

The partnership will consider acting against a professional organisation that provides false information or deliberately withholds information on behalf of an applicant they are representing.

Applicants who are found to have given false or misleading information will be made non-qualifying for 12 months and will need to submit a new application after this time.

Deliberate worsening of circumstances

Any applicant who deliberately worsens their housing circumstances will have any priority removed and will be placed into Band 4 for a period of six months.

Examples of worsening circumstances may include:

• giving up a tenancy or secure housing for no good reason
• moving from a property that has been adapted for the needs of someone in the household to a property that does not have the required adaptations
• moving into a property that is too small or large to meet the needs of the household

Please note this list is not exhaustive.

The applicant can ask for a reassessment of their band after this period but would be responsible for providing evidence to support this.

Notifications about decisions and the right to a statutory review of a decision

Applicants have the following rights about decisions made about their housing application:

• the right to be notified in writing of any decision not to be registered on the scheme
• the right, on request, to be informed of a decision about any information which is being taken into account in considering whether to make an offer of accommodation
• the right to request a review of a decision made regarding their application

The review will be carried out by the partner organisation that received the original application in line with their procedures. Applicants may also be entitled to a further review by the relevant local authority and they will be informed where this is the case.

Reasonable and additional preference

To ensure that those with the highest level of housing need are given preference, we have considered the categories of people that must be given 'reasonable preference' by local authorities, as set out in s166a of the Housing Act 1996 and the Homelessness Act 2002. These are:

• people who are statutorily homeless
• people who the local authority owe certain homeless duties to
• people who live in insanitary or overcrowded homes
• people who need to move for medical or welfare reasons
• people who need to move to avoid hardship

We have taken into account government guidance from The Housing Act 1996 (Additional Preference for Armed Forces) (England) Regulations 2012 - Statutory Instrument No: 2989 that came into force on 30 November 2012. This allows us to give an additional preference to people who have served in the Armed Forces.

This additional preference will be awarded to members of the HM Armed Forces community, including those serving or have formerly served in the regular or reserve forces, a bereaved spouse or civil partner, or a divorced spouse or civil partner, who are identified as having an urgent need for housing within 5 years of discharge.