Applying for Housing in Hackney
Making your application
We will seek to ensure that the process whereby housing needs are assessed and homes are let is easily understood and is fair and transparent.
Eligibility: Those who may not apply for housing
The law says that we cannot allocate housing to people who are subject to immigration control. These include asylum seekers, those who have been refused leave to remain in the country and those with no recourse to public funds.
The law also allows the Council to exclude from housing, people whose behaviour has been unacceptable. Examples may include anti social behaviour and rent arrears.
Reduced priority: When is this applied?
There are some circumstances when the Council gives less priority to people applying to be housed. This is likely to affect those who:
- Have no local connection with the borough
- Where there has been unacceptable behaviour in a tenancy such as rent arrears or anti social behaviour
- Who have sufficient income to rent privately or purchase housing
Joining the housing waiting list
- Everyone must complete the housing waiting list form in full. We cannot register anyone without all the information and we will return the form if questions are left unanswered
- We need to ensure that applicants are eligible to apply, decide what their priority ought to be and identify fraudulent applications. We will also provide appropriate assistance according to individual circumstances
- We may share information provided on the housing application form with another social landlord if we believe they may be able to help you with housing
- We ask about ethnicity and disability so that we can ensure our policies and practices are not discriminating in favour or against any person or group
Checking applications are honest
- The housing application form describes exactly what we require to approve your application. Until we have all the necessary documentation we will not be able to accept it. In these circumstances you will not be able to make a bid under Hackney Choice
- We will ask for confirmation of identity of the applicant and their household members. We will need to confirm that any children included on the form live with the applicant and are in their long term care. We will do this by checking child benefit payments and income support documents
- We will ask for documents to confirm residency over the past five years. This is to ensure we have details of any previous tenancies held or properties owned. Applicants receiving housing benefit or council tax benefit, can agree to let us collect the information from our Revenues and Benefits Service
What happens next?
- When we have received all the necessary documentation we will send you a copy of the information we have recorded, based upon the application form. We will ask you to check this and to tell us straight away if anything is wrong
- We will indicate which letting band you have joined as well as the band date of the application. Our bands are date ordered and new applicants will usually join the band at the bottom
- Applicants will be offered the opportunity of accepting a home that is one bedroom less than we consider is needed in order to speed up their housing prospects.
Hackney Choice
The Council introduced choice based lettings (CBL) in September 2006. The Hackney CBL scheme is called Hackney Choice. This is a major change in the way people and properties are matched together.
Under Hackney Choice applicants are still assessed according to housing need and placed into bands.
Most applicants are now expected to bid for advertised vacancies. Bids made for each property are ranked by bands and date order
Since April 2007 older applicants, who have low level or no support needs, may bid for sheltered accommodation
Full details of the Hackney Choice scheme can be viewed in the Hackney Choice section.
Information about our lettings policy is available on the How We Let Our Homes page
On this page you will find six easy to understand publications, each explaining the separate parts of the scheme:
- How to apply for housing in Hackney
- How we assess your application
- How many bedrooms
- Medical priority
- Harassment and domestic violence
- Council interest priorities
Page updated: 15 Oct 2008