Common Allocation Policy for Tees Valley Lettings Partnership

Available properties will be advertised daily on the scheme's interactive lettings platform and in displays at the partner landlords' housing offices or other agreed method.

Applicants or their advocates wanting to apply for a property can speak directly to a member of staff or use the interactive website. Applications will also be accepted by email or in person at any one of the partner organisation's housing receptions.

Applicants can apply for an unlimited number of available properties and will be kept up to date on the progress of them via their dashboard through the lettings platform. If they are successful, the applicant will be contacted directly by the relevant registered provider.

Once an applicant has an active account, they can apply for available homes.

Adverts will be clearly labelled to show the property features, local neighbourhood information and the types of households that can apply for it. A photograph will usually be included with the advert.

Properties are sometimes advertised during a tenant's 4 week notice of termination period and could be withdrawn from the scheme if the tenant changes their mind about moving.

There will sometimes be other restrictions in the advert, for example age restrictions or adapted properties. Applicants will only be considered if they can match the requirements in the advert.

Properties can be added to the site on any day of the week and will advertise for a minimum of 5 working days.

Where there is more than one property of the same description in the same location, only one advert will be displayed. The property advert will show that there are 'X' properties of the same type available at the same time, for example if there are 2 or more flats available in a block or where there are several new build properties.

Adapted properties for people with disabilities

Adapted properties are homes which have been designed or adapted to meet the needs of people with physical or sensory disabilities.

Applicants who have an assessed need for adapted properties will be given priority over others without that need and the property advert will make this clear. The advert will also describe the adaptations to help people choose whether to apply for that property or not.

Making direct offers without advertising

As well as applicants applying for advertised properties, there will also be circumstances in which some applicants will receive direct offers.

A direct offer may be made in exceptional circumstances, for example:

• applicants assessed by the local authority as being owed a homelessness duty
• people who need emergency accommodation due to fire, flood or major repairs
• ex-offenders subject to Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), where a full support package is in place with other relevant statutory and voluntary organisations to enable them to be returned to the community
• people who are at an imminent risk of violence or a threat of violence, for example victims of domestic abuse, hate related crime or through a witness protection scheme

If an applicant refuses a direct offer of accommodation, they will only be given a 2nd offer in exceptional circumstances.

At the end of the advertising period, a list of applicants will be produced.

Applications will usually be placed in band order, ranked Band 1 to 4. If there are two or more applicants in the same band, the date they entered the band (their priority date) will be used as a tiebreaker. In the case of decants, the applicant's occupancy date for their current property will be used as their priority date. If the priority date is the same for two or more applicants, the registration date will be used.

Some partners may use a quota system, which means that a percentage of their properties may give preference to Band 2, 3 or 4 first.

Local lettings policies may also affect the order of the shortlist.

Local lettings policies

In some cases, a home may be advertised with a local lettings policy (LLP). This means that there may be certain qualities or characteristics that the landlord will be looking for when allocating the property.

A local lettings policy is usually developed between the landlord, local authority, and other agencies in order to achieve a specific aim for an area, estate or new build development. For example:

• where there is an issue with anti-social behaviour on an estate, a local lettings policy can be used to make sure that no more households with a history of anti-social behaviour are housed there until the area stabilises
• for new build developments, a local lettings policy can help us get the right mix of families on an estate

Where a property has an local lettings policy attached to it, we will state this on the advert and make this available for the applicant to read.

Local connection

Applicants will be counted as having a local connection to a local authority area if they fit one or more of the following categories:

• they live in the local authority area and have lived there for 6 out of the past 12 months or 3 out of the past 5 years
• they have close family connections with someone living in the local authority area. A close family connection is defined as a parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, legal guardian
• their regular place of work is located within any of the local authority areas

Applicants with a local connection to the local authority area will be given priority for an offer before applicants who do not where they are in the same band.

Applicants in temporary accommodation, for example probation hostels, will not usually have a local connection to that area unless they meet one of the criteria previously listed or there are special circumstances, for example they have been placed into that accommodation by the local authority due to homelessness.

Applicants leaving the armed forces and victims of domestic abuse will not need to have a local connection. Divorced or separated spouses or civil partners of service personnel who need to move out of accommodation provided by the Ministry of Defence will also be exempted from local connection requirements. A local connection will be applied across all 3 local authority areas for these applicants.

Applicants eligible under the Homes for Ukraine scheme will have local connection to the local authority of the host family that they were placed with.