Buckinghamshire Council Housing Allocations Scheme

In order to register for Bucks Home Choice, an applicant must:

• be aged 16 years or over (upon allocation of a property an applicant aged 16 or 17 years of age will be required to have an adult who can hold a tenancy as a trustee until they are 18.)
• be eligible for an allocation of housing under Part 6 of the Housing Act 1996, and
• qualify for the Bucks Home Choice scheme.
• where two persons apply jointly for housing, at least one of the applicants must be eligible. A joint tenancy cannot be granted when one of the applicants is not eligible. The application will be made in the name of the applicant who is eligible and a sole tenancy will be granted.
• must be residing in the United Kingdom

Under Section 160ZA of the Housing Act 1996, an applicant will not be eligible for an allocation of housing if he or she is:

• a person subject to immigration control within the meaning of the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996 (unless he is of a class prescribed by regulations made by the Secretary of State).
• a person who falls within a class of persons from abroad who have been prescribed by the Secretary of State as being ineligible to be allocated housing accommodation by a local housing authority.
• a person who falls into any other class of person prescribed by the

Secretary of State as not qualifying to be allocated housing accommodation by a local housing authority.

An applicant who is not eligible for an allocation of housing under Section 160ZA of the Housing Act 1996 cannot register with Bucks Home Choice regardless of the applicant’s personal circumstances.

Under Section 160ZA (7) a local housing authority may decide what classes of persons are, or are not, qualifying persons for an allocation of housing accommodation. Blanket exclusions of particular groups cannot be applied and these exclusions may not apply to homeless applicants as they do not over-ride the Council’s duties under Part 7 (Homelessness) of the Housing Act 1996 .

Notwithstanding Clause 2.3B the following persons are deemed not to qualify for the Bucks Home Choice scheme under this clause 2.3A if the following applies:

• (a) A person whose circumstances do not meet the criteria of any of the

Priority Bands set down in Appendix 1 (see 2.3.1)

• (b) A person who is an applicant who is deemed to be reasonable preference but they or a member of their household is considered guilty of unacceptable behaviour serious enough to make them unsuitable to be a tenant and at the time of the application for housing they are still considered unsuitable to be a tenant when considering all the relevant circumstances as appropriate (see 2.3.2).

Each application will be considered on a case by case basis.

The following classes of person are deemed not to qualify for the Bucks Home Choice scheme under this clause 2.3B unless they are deemed to have a Reasonable Preference in accordance with Section 166A of the Housing Act 1996 (see Appendix 3)

• a person who does not meet the local connection criteria (see section 2.3.3)
• a person who is an owner occupier of a property (See 2.3.4)
• a person with current or former tenancy rent arrears owed to a

Registered Provider or private landlord unless the Council is satisfied that action is being taken to resolve the arrears (See 2.3.5)

• a person whose income, assets or savings are sufficient to enable the person to source accommodation in the private sector.
• a person who formerly owned a property within the last five years and who failed to use the capital receipt from the property disposal to secure adequate alternative housing arrangements (see 2.3.4).
• a person who has previously purchased a property under the statutory

Right to Buy or Right to Acquire schemes (see 2.3.4)

• a person who has been re-housed in a social housing tenancy and who wishes to apply to be re-housed again (unless there has been a change of circumstances since the person was re-housed in which event the application will be assessed as a new application under the Bucks Home Choice policy)
• a person who has any outstanding related housing debt with the Managing Partner’s housing department. A housing related debt could be former tenant arrears whilst in temporary accommodation, former tenant arrears whilst holding a previous tenancy or outstanding repayments on loans provided by the local authority to help the applicant to secure accommodation.
• a person whose household is considered to be adequately housed as detailed in ‘size and type of property for which applicants are eligible’ (5.5) but who is not using the bed spaces within their property to its optimum capacity. This includes taking account of an additional reception room or dining room that could be reasonably used as a bedroom.

The Council reserves the right in exceptional circumstances to register a household with the scheme even if the household falls into one of the non-qualifying classes set out in this Policy. Any decision to register a non-qualifying household will be subject to authorisation by the Senior Housing Officer and will be based on the individual circumstances of the household concerned. In event of a decision being made to register a non-qualifying household, the Council will record full details of the reason for the decision.

Further information on some of the classes of person deemed to be non-qualifying for Bucks Home Choice is given below in the remainder of Section 2.3

Those persons who do not fall into any of the priority bandings set out in Appendix 1 are considered to be adequately housed and therefore not qualifying persons.

Unacceptable behaviour is behaviour that renders the applicant unsuitable to be offered a tenancy. If an applicant or any member of the applicant’s household is considered to be guilty of unacceptable behaviour or considered to be causing or involved in activities that may be considered unacceptable behaviour, that is serious enough to make them unsuitable to be a tenant at the time of the application for housing, then they will be considered unsuitable to be a tenant by reason of that behaviour.

Any decision made in respect of the applicant’s behaviour making an applicant unsuitable to be considered a tenant, will include consideration of all the household's circumstances including the timing, pattern and seriousness of the behaviour and an applicant’s engagement with appropriate services.

Examples of Unacceptable Behaviour could include but are not limited to:

a) having been evicted for anti-social behaviour or rent arrears on a previous tenancy, either with a Registered Provider or Private Landlord in the last 5 years.

b) conviction for illegal or immoral purpose.

c) causing nuisance and annoyance to neighbours or visitors.

d) committing certain criminal offences in or near the home and still posing a threat to neighbours or the community

e) being violent towards a partner or members of the family.

f) being verbally or physically abusive towards a member of the Council’s staff

g) allowing the condition of the property to deteriorate.

h) allowing any furniture provided by the landlord to deteriorate due to ill treatment.

i) obtaining a tenancy by deception, for example, by giving false or misleading information.

j) Paying money to illegally obtain a tenancy.

k) having lost accommodation provided in connection with employment due to conduct making it inappropriate for the person to reside there.

l) subject to an Anti-Social Behaviour Order

m) breaking the terms of a tenancy agreement and a notice to quit has been issued. If an applicant is accepted onto the Housing Register and is subsequently found to be guilty of unacceptable behaviour (including one or more of (a) to (m) above) then the Council will review the application and may remove the applicant from the Housing Register.

An applicant must have a local connection to at least one of the following

legacy district areas in order to qualify for Bucks Home Choice;

• legacy Aylesbury Vale area
• legacy Chiltern area
• legacy South Bucks area
• legacy Wycombe area

The applicant will only qualify to register for the district area where their local connection applies (e.g. An applicant with a local connection to the legacy Wycombe district area will only qualify to register for rehousing in the legacy Wycombe area. The applicant will not qualify to register for rehousing in the other legacy district areas – subject to the Exceptions listed further down in this section)

An applicant is deemed to have a local connection with one of these legacy district areas if the applicant:

• Is living and has lived in the legacy district area continuously for at least 2 years immediately preceding the date of the application. If an applicant has lived out of the area for a single period of up to 4 calendar months whilst registered they will retain a local connection. If an applicant has lived outside of the area for a single period exceeding 4 calendar months (or for multiple periods) and the applicant does not meet the Reasonable Preference categories set down in Appendix 3, their housing register application will be cancelled.
• If an applicant is working and has been in continuous employment in the legacy district area for at least 2 years immediately preceding the date of the application and has worked for a minimum of 24 hours per week throughout that period. Employment is described as having a permanent contract, or working under contract as temporary member of staff. Location of work is determined by an applicant’s main place of work. If an employee’s head office is in the area but the location of work is outside the actual area when it is carried out, this cannot be considered as being the main place of work.
• If an applicant has changed employer within the legacy district area, or their hours have reduced, to below 24 hours per week, for no more than 4 calendar months, they will retain a local connection. Any applicant who no longer retains a local connection and does not meet the reasonable categories set down in Appendix 3 will have their housing register application cancelled.
• A person who has found accommodation in a supported housing unit anywhere within the Buckinghamshire Council local housing authority area will retain a local connection with the district area they were living in before moving into supported accommodation.

Exceptions – Applicants who are deemed to qualify even if they do not meet the above Local Connection criteria

If an applicant does not meet the local connection criteria above for at least one of the legacy district areas, then the applicant will not be a qualifying person for Bucks Home Choice. The only exceptions to this are applicants who:

a) are aged 55 or more and seeking accommodation designated solely for person aged 55 or more and the household’s income, assets or savings are not sufficient for the household to source accommodation in the private sector.

b) Are subject to the main housing duty under Section 193 of Part 7 (Homelessness) of the Housing Act 1996 by Buckinghamshire Council

c) Are serving in the armed forces or who have served in the armed forces within the five-year period immediately preceding the application

d) Have recently left Ministry of Defence accommodation because of the death of a spouse, who served in the regular forces

e) Are serving or have previously served in the reserve forces and are suffering from a serious injury as a result of this service

f) Persons who were required to live outside of the district area for reasons out of their control (i.e. placed in care,) and who had a local connection to the district area immediately prior to moving away.

g) Prisoners who have been released from prison and had a local connection to the district immediately prior to going to prison.

h) Persons who meet the criteria as set out in the Allocation of Housing (Qualification Criteria for Right to Move) (England) Regulations 2015/.

i) Persons who do not meet the local connection criteria but meet the criteria for one or more of the Reasonable Preference categories set out in Appendix 3

j) Is a current or former “looked after” child currently being supported by Buckinghamshire Council’s Children’s Services and is registering on the Bucks Home Choice scheme in accordance with the terms of the Buckinghamshire Leaving Care Protocol (in which case the applicant can register for rehousing on any of the legacy district area Housing Registers regardless of where they may currently or previously have resided)

If an applicant meets any of the criteria listed in (a) to (i) above they will be deemed to qualify for Bucks Home Choice regardless of whether or not the applicant has a local connection to a legacy district area provided they are not deemed to be a non-qualifying person under clause 2.3A(b).

For the purposes of determining a local connection the following living arrangements will not be taken into account:

• Occupation of a mobile home, caravan, motor caravan, or houseboat which is not placed on a residential site; or
• Occupation of a holiday letting which includes a permanent building, hotel or bed and breakfast accommodation for the purposes of a holiday letting.
• Applicants placed in an institution, prison, hospital or in one of the district areas who otherwise have no local connection.

A person is considered to be a current owner-occupier for the purpose of this policy if they are the owner or joint owner of any residential property regardless of location. They will not be a qualifying person unless;

• The person falls into one of the statutory Reasonable Preference categories (see Appendix 3) and are not deemed to be a non-qualifying person under clause 2.3A(b) or
• It is not possible for the person to remain in their current address (e.g. because adaptations are required and cannot be undertaken) and the person does not have sufficient financial resources available to secure other accommodation without the Council’s assistance.

In considering the issues raised in this section, the Council will take specialist advice as required (e.g. from an Occupational Therapist).

If an applicant has a legal, financial or beneficiary interest in a property, the full circumstances will be investigated. If the applicant is able to realise his/her interest in the property and it would be sufficient to secure alternative accommodation without the Council’s assistance, the applicant will be considered to be an owner occupier.

If the applicant is not a current owner occupier and has formerly owned a property within the last five years, the applicant will be asked to provide evidence of the sale and details of any capital receipt arising from the sale. If the applicant subsequently disposed of any capital receipt without making adequate housing arrangements then the applicant will be deemed not the qualify for Bucks Home Choice (unless the applicant falls into one of the statutory Reasonable Preference categories (see Appendix 3) and is not deemed to be a non-qualifying person under clause 2.3A(b)

An applicant has previously purchased a property under the statutory Right to Buy or Right to Acquire schemes will be deemed not to qualify for Bucks Home Choice (unless the applicant falls into one of the statutory Reasonable Preference categories (see Appendix 3) and is not deemed to be a non-qualifying person under clause 2.3A(b))

a) An applicant who has been evicted from a previous tenancy on the grounds of rent arrears within the five year period preceding the date of application (or who voluntarily surrendered a tenancy in advance of a warrant for possession being executed on rent arrears grounds) will not be a qualifying person for Bucks Home Choice unless the arrears have been cleared in full or the applicant falls into one of the statutory

Reasonable Preference categories (see Appendix 3) and is not deemed to be a non-qualifying person under clause 2.3A(b).

b) Where an applicant or a member of his household owes rent arrears to a current or former landlord, at the time of the application or at any period during the application they will be placed in a Band E until such times as they provided evidence that the arrears have been cleared. Once confirmation has been received the application will be reassessed in line with the Bucks Home Choice Allocation Policy.

There may be exceptional circumstances where the Council may depart from this Policy including for example –

1. Where the rent arrears have arisen due to exceptional circumstances beyond the applicant’s control the Council may depart from this policy and the decision will be referred to a Senior Officer.
2. Registered Provider tenants transferring who have accrued rent arrears solely through a shortfall in housing benefit due to under-occupying their property may apply to the housing register. Each case will be looked at on an individual basis by a Senior Officer; the tenant must be able to demonstrate that they are trying to resolve the situation at an early stage by seeking a smaller property and making an attempt to cover any shortfall.

The provisions in (a) may not apply if the Council has accepted a main housing duty under Section 193 of Part 7 (Homelessness) of the Housing Act 1996. The Council will contact the current or former landlord of the applicant or any member of his or her household to confirm the facts.

If the Council has made a decision that an applicant is not a qualifying person and cannot join Bucks Home Choice, the applicant will have the right to request a review of this decision within 21 days of being notified of the decision. The review will be undertaken by a Senior Housing Officer who was not involved in the original decision. The review decision will be made within a 56 day period.