Housing Advice Service

Housing Options - A guide to homelessness

The Housing Act 1996, Part VII (as amended by the 2002 Homelessness Act) sets out the legal duty we have to people who apply to us for housing.

If you are homeless, we will carry out an assessment interview to work out whether we can help you.

An initial contact officer will interview you:

To decide if we have a legal duty to help you; and
Work out how else we can help you if we do not have a legal duty towards you

Before we can decide whether we have a legal duty towards you, a housing advice prevention officer must make sure that you are:

Eligible for housing
Homeless
In priority need of housing

Questions and answers on our legal duty

Once I have applied how will I know the outcome of my application?

We will write to you explaining whether we have accepted a full housing duty to help you.

If we do not have a full housing duty to help you, we will explain why in our letter. Please see the end of this page for information on the appeals procedure. We will also send you information, telling you how you can appeal against our decision.

What if I am found intentionally homeless?

If you are intentionally homeless (you became homeless through your own fault), we do not have a housing duty towards you. We can help by providing advice and help through the Housing Options Team.

What will happen if you do not have a legal duty to help me?

If we do not have a legal duty towards you, we will refer you to the Housing Options Team who will offer you advice and help to find other accommodation depending on your circumstances.

Questions and answers on homelessness

How will you decide if I am homeless?

We may consider you to be homeless if you:

Have nowhere to live in the UK or anywhere in the world
Have somewhere to live, but it is not reasonable for you to stay there, for example, because of violence or being threatened with violence
Have no legal rights to stay where you are living
Have been locked out and not allowed back into your home
Cannot stay in your home for health reasons, for example, your home is in a bad state of repair and is damaging your health
Live in a houseboat or caravan and have nowhere to put it; or
Are likely to be homeless within 28 days

What happens if I am not homeless?

If you are not legally homeless or threatened with homelessness within 28 days, we will give you advice and help. We will refer you to our Housing Options Team who may help you to find other housing.

Questions and answers for priority applicants

How will you decide if I am in priority need?

We may consider you to be in priority need if you:

Are pregnant or your partner, who you live with, is pregnant
Have dependent children living you and they are under the age of 16 or under 19 and in full-time education
Are 'vulnerable' as a result of old age, mental illness or disability, physical disability, have been looked after, have been in care or fostered and is aged 21 or more, have been a member of Her Majesty's regular naval, military or air forces, have been in prison or custody, or other special reasons
Are at risk of violence; or
Have been made homeless or threatened with homelessness as a result of an emergency such as fire, flood or other disaster

If the housing advice prevention officer decides that you are eligible for housing, homeless and in priority need, he or she can refer you to the Homeless Persons Team or to the Housing Options Team depending on your needs.

If you are referred to the Homeless Persons Team, a caseworker will look at your application and decide if we have a legal duty to help you. By law, your caseworker must also consider:

Whether you have made yourself intentionally homeless; and
Whether you have a local connection with the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham or whether another council should be helping you

Will you offer me temporary accommodation while you are investigating my application?

If you are eligible for housing, homeless and in priority need, we will offer you temporary accommodation in a hostel or, depending on your circumstances, in whatever temporary accommodation is available at the time.

What happens if I am not in priority need?

If you are not in priority need, the Housing Advice Prevention or Housing Options Team will offer you advice and help.

If you have a medical problem, they will pass your details to the Independent Medical Officer who will decide whether your medical problem can be seen as a priority need.

Questions and answers on eligibility

What happens if I am not eligible for housing?

The government has decided that some people who are living under immigration control, or who do not normally live in the United Kingdom, are not entitled to help from our homelessness department.

If you need more advice on the law, you can ask the staff in our homelessness team to explain it to you.

What happens if I do not have a local connection?

If you do not have a local connection, we will refer you to the council who should be helping you. You may have a local connection if you:

Have lived in the borough for 6 out of the last 12 months or 3 out of the last 5 years
Work in the borough
Have close relatives who have lived in the borough for the last 5 years (a close relative is a mother, father, brother, sister, son or daughter); or
Have special circumstances for example, you need to be near special medical services, special schools or support services which are only available in this borough

How will you decide if I am eligible for housing?

We may consider you to be eligible for help if you:

Usually live in the UK and are not under immigration control; and
Have the right to live in the UK and are considered to be 'habitually resident' (see below)

The test to work out whether you are 'habitually resident' looks at:

Whether you have chosen to live in the UK
How long you have lived in the UK
Whether you are working or looking for work
Your reasons for coming to the UK
Your future plans

Questions and answers on bidding for a property

Will you offer me a permanent home?

To be considered for permanent housing, you will need to bid (apply) for properties.

More Choice in Lettings allows you more choice in the type of property and area that you want to live in. You will need to fill in a 'Home Choice application form.' If your application is successful, our Home Choice team will send you a letter telling you your registration number, your registration category and the number of bedrooms you can bid for.

How do you decide who to offer properties to?

We will advertise properties in the 'Home Choice' magazine every week. You will be able to bid (apply) for the properties advertised once we have registered your application form.

The advertised properties have pictures, details, and the name of the landlords to help you choose which property is right for you. You can bid for 1 property in any bidding cycle within your registration category.

To bid for properties telephone our bidding hot line on 0845 650 4125, visit the East London Lettings Company website or come to any of our 5 self-service kiosks.

For more information, please see the booklet 'Choose where you want to live' which you can get from any of our Local Housing Offices.

How do I appeal a decision?

You can ask us to review a decision we have made about:

Your eligibility to join the register
Removing your name from the register

If you think a decision on either of these is wrong you have the right to ask us to review our decision. You will need to appeal within 21 days from the date you are told of the decision. An independent manager will then deal with this appeal and you will be notified in writing of the outcome.