Common Allocations Policy April 2025

Officers use our computer system to prepare a 'shortlist' of applicants when a property becomes available. Joining the housing list does not mean that we will always be able to make you an offer of housing. Whether you receive an offer of housing will depend on:

• your level of housing need
• demand from other people on the list
• the number of properties that become available
• the number of allocations we need to make to applicants in each of the groups

If we are able to offer you a property, we will make you a formal offer of housing. We may call you to tell you we have an offer for you and will send you a written offer. If we offer you housing by 'phone' we will always confirm the offer in writing.

The letter we send to you will set out the next steps and information regarding what you need to do to prepare for a new tenancy. We will tell you:

• the address of the property
• the number of bedrooms it has
• what type of property it is (such as a flat or a house)
• how much rent and service charge you will have to pay if you accept the offer
• what to bring to your pre-tenancy interview

When we contact you about an offer of housing, we'll advise you how much time you have to respond but we'll always give you at least 3 days to decide. If you don't respond to our offer of housing within the timescale, we'll treat this as a refusal of the offer.

We will normally make applicants up to two offers of housing, and Homeless and Strategic Need applicants will usually receive one offer which meets their needs.

If you turn down two offers, or one offer if you are in Strategic Need or Homelessness, without good reasons, we may suspend your housing application and discharge our homeless duty to you and you will lose your priority status and your application will move to another group. A further offer of housing can be made from this group but it will be some considerable time before another offer is made.

Every offer we make will be a reasonable offer. This means that the property we offer you will:

• have all the bedrooms you need as defined by this policy
• meet all the recommendations our Housing Options Team made after an assessment of your needs

Wherever possible, we will offer you the type of housing you'd like but we can't always do this because we don't always have enough of the type of properties people would like to live in.

Accepting our offer of housing

If you accept our offer, we will sign you up as our tenant at your pre-tenancy interview. If you made a joint application, you will have a joint tenancy. All joint tenants must be present when we ask you to sign your tenancy agreement. We will give you advice, information and support throughout the process of becoming our tenant. We will clearly explain your rights and responsibilities under the tenancy agreement before you sign it.