Housing Options Team - Homelessness

Mendip District Council can offer advice and assistance to help you if you are homeless or about to lose your home.

If you are in danger of losing your home, it is important that you tell us as soon as possible. This is so that we can:

• Give you advice on your legal rights to prevent you from losing your home
• Where appropriate, suggest ways in which you may solve your problems yourself
• Provide you and your family with a temporary home if appropriate

What is homelessness?

You ARE homeless if you do not have a home that you can use. Your home must also be available to any other member of your family or household with whom you normally live.

You are NOT homeless if:

• You can stay legally in your present home
• There is another home which you can occupy
• You have permission to stay where you are or you can obtain that permission

You MAY be homeless if you have a home, but cannot live there for one of the following reasons:

• You have been evicted illegally or unlawfully from it
  If you return to it you will have to face some form of violence or assault
• It is not reasonable for you to stay in your present home
• If you are in danger of losing your home, it is important that you contact us as soon as possible in order that our Housing Options Officers can talk to you about the options available in your particular circumstances

If you are in danger of losing your home

If you are in danger of losing your home, it is important that you contact us as soon as possible in order that our Housing Options Officers can talk to you about the options available in your particular circumstances.

We have a duty to advise or assist you if you are homeless. Whether we provide advice, only, or some form of temporary housing, depends on whether or not you are within a priority category.

We may be able to obtain temporary housing for you if you are within one of the following priority categories. These are where you:

• Have one or more dependent children living with you, (a dependant child is normally under 16 years old or under 19 if in full time education) or if you are an expectant parent
• Have lost your home due to an emergency such as a serious fire, flood or other disaster
• Are in very poor health especially if you are elderly or in some other way particularly vulnerable or frail
• Have a serious mental illness or handicap
• Have a physical disability - for example if you are blind, deaf, and unable to speak or otherwise substantially disabled
• A person aged 16 or 17
• Care Leavers aged 18 to 21
• Are vulnerable for some other reasons, perhaps because there is a risk of another person exploiting you or you are a person who has been or is in danger of a violent attack

If you are homeless and you are NOT in one of the priority groups we will give you advice and assistance to help you find a home. We may be able to assist you with one of our non priority schemes for homeless people.

Intentional or unintentional homelessness

If you apply to us as a homeless person, we have to ask questions about your application and the reasons why you became homeless.

We may, for example, contact your previous landlord, parents, other tenants, employers, social workers, solicitors, building societies or other people who may be able to give us information about your homelessness.

If you have become homeless through a deliberate action or inaction you may be regarded as intentionally homeless. In this case, even if you are in a priority category, we will only have a duty to provide you with temporary accommodation for a very limited period to enable you to find alternative housing.

You will not be regarded as intentionally homeless if you have done your best to keep your existing home, but have lost it through no fault of your own.

Please ask for advice before you give up any home which you have a right or permission to occupy.

You should seek legal advice before you leave your home. You can get this from an independent advice agency such as, Citizen's Advice Bureau, Shelter or a solicitor.

You will find links to their websites in the 'useful websites' section of this page.

Appointments

We understand that being homeless, can be very distressing. That is why when we carry out our enquiries we do it as quickly and sympathetically as possible.

Please feel free to contact a Housing Options Officer at any stage. We will be happy to speak to you as soon as you have or expect a problem.

When you come to see us, you can bring along a friend or relative, or perhaps an interpreter if you feel this would help. You should bring your rent books, legal agreements, lease documents, receipts, solicitors letters or any other papers which you think would help us to understand your case. If you have these items available, it will help us to make a decision quickly.

If you cannot keep any appointments you make with us, please let us know as early as possible so that we can make other arrangements. We cannot provide everyone with social housing, but we can offer other help and advice to prevent or delay the loss of your home. We can also give you advice on other types of housing including deposit schemes to secure housing in the private sector. Please ask us for advice at the earliest possible time if you think you may become homeless. We can reassure you that all the information you give us is treated in the strictest confidence.

Important Note

Under the Housing Act 1996 Part VII the Council must inform all applicants for Housing that it is a criminal offence to make incorrect, misleading or inaccurate statements with a view to misleading the Council about whether a duty is owed under Part VII.

Result of your application

We will tell you if we have decided that you:

• are homeless (or regarded as homeless)
• are in a priority category
• are thought to have made yourself intentionally homeless
• should be referred to another Council where necessary

We will tell you if we have a duty to secure accommodation for you. You will be registered on the housing register and considered for permanent housing according to the priority awarded along with other people on the list. This may include housing which is owned and managed by one of the local Registered Social Landlords (Housing Associations) in the area, or other privately owned property available.

Appealing against decisions

Although we try to ensure that all our decisions are fair and reasonable, we do have a review procedure. If you feel that an incorrect decision has been made in your case, your first action should be to speak to the officer who dealt with your case and discuss it with him or her. If, after doing this, you still feel dissatisfied with the result, you may request a review in writing to the Council. A letter will then be sent to you advising you of the Council's decision on your review.

Rent arrears and homelessness

If you have a problem with rent or mortgage arrears, please ask for advice about Housing Benefits and Rent Allowances or other help with housing costs.

Tied and service tenants, armed forces

If you are a tied or service tenant, or a member of the Armed Forces and you have a strong connection with the Mendip Area, you should apply to us well before you are due to lose your home.

If the above paragraph applies to you, get in touch with us as early as possible before your retirement, discharge or leaving tied housing. This will allow us to make enquiries and decide whether or not we are able to help you with housing.

Local connections with the Mendip area

If the Council accept you as homeless and in priority need and you have a valid local connection with the Mendip District Council area the Council must secure that accommodation becomes available to you.

A valid local connection means that you have:

• Lived in the area for the past 6 months or 3 years out of the past 5 years
• A permanent job in the District
• Close family who have lived permanently in the District Council area for more than 5 years

If you apply to the Council as homeless and have no local connection with Mendip but you do have a connection with another district, we will refer you back to that area for advice and assistance. We will only do this after we have carried out a full investigation to ensure this referral is appropriate.

Who is eligible?

Housing legislation includes provisions that make certain persons from abroad ineligible for housing assistance. Housing authorities will therefore need to satisfy themselves that applicants are eligible before providing housing assistance. The provisions on eligibility are complex and housing authorities will need to ensure that they have procedures in place to carry out appropriate checks on housing applicants.

Contact

Last Updated

17 February 2010

Page last updated on 17 February 2010