Housing allocation scheme

Making an application

To be considered for inclusion on our housing register you must:

• complete an assessment form online with details of your housing history and the current needs of you and your household; and
• provide documents to verify your identity and current housing circumstances; and
• complete any supplementary forms that we send or answer further questions that we ask you.

You can complete an assessment form to record your household’s housing needs if you are 16 years of age or over.

You can be included on only one application for affordable housing in this borough. This can either be your own personal application or you can be included as a household member in another person’s application.

You must complete the assessment form fully and accurately. We will use it to decide your priority on the housing register so that housing can be allocated fairly and openly based on greatest need. We may carry out home visits and interviews to confirm housing needs.

To complete an assessment please visit - Kent Homechoice

If you need assistance completing the form, or require it in a different format, please contact 01732 844522 or email housing.services@tmbc.gov.uk.

Upon receipt of your application, you will be notified of any supporting information required, and you will have 28 days to submit this. Failure to provide the supporting documentation will result in the application being removed.

If you are under 18 years of age:

• your ability to manage a tenancy will be assessed, usually via a referral to Social Services or other support services, to identify any need for support; and
• you will need a guarantor, usually your parent, legal guardian or other relative as any tenancy granted will be held in trust until you reach 18 years of age.

Who can be included on your application?

You can include members of your household who are currently residing with you:

• your partner, whether you are married, in a civil partnership or co-habiting;
• you and your partner’s or carer’s dependent children under the age of 18, including biological or adopted children;
• relatives, including adult children, parents, or brothers/sisters unless they have a separate application or otherwise intend to live independently from you; and
• someone who currently lives with you as your carer.

We will also consider including partners, carers and their dependents who are not currently living with you if:

• they are no longer able to live independently because they need care and support that you can provide; or
• you are unable to live together as your current accommodation does not meet the needs arising from their disability, or
• you are unable to live together as neither you nor any other member of your household have accommodation available which is large enough to accommodate your whole household together.

If you have shared responsibilities for dependent children

This is where any dependent children live with you some of the time and at other times with their other parent/guardian at a separate address. We will assess whether your address is their main home and if they can be included as members of your household on your application. We will consider:

• the financial support you receive including Child Benefit, tax credits, disability benefits (if appropriate) and maintenance from their other parent/guardian;
• any Court Order(s) under the Children Act (1989) in respect of parental responsibility, contact or residency;
• supporting evidence from Social Services in respect of fostering, guardianship, or adoption placements; and
• whether the children currently reside with someone else for all or part of each week.

Regardless of the amount of time that your children actually spend with you, if we decide that their main home is not with you:

• they will not be included on your housing register application; and they will not be considered when assessing overcrowding/under-occupation or the size of property (number of bedrooms) that you can apply for, or be offered, through Choice Based Lettings.

If you need a carer

A carer is someone who looks after and supports a partner, friend, relative or neighbour, who would not be able to manage without their help. This could be due to age, physical or mental illness or disability. It does not mean a professional care-worker or personal assistant who gets paid for their work.

If you have identified a primary carer we will consider whether they need to live with you or near you to provide care. They may be entitled to Carer’s Allowance if they spend at least 35 hours per week in their caring role. Even if your carer receives Carer’s Allowance it may not be essential that they live with you as a member of your household. If you have requested an additional bedroom for your carer, we will take into account:

• whether your carer receives Carer’s Allowance;
• whether your care needs have been assessed as including overnight support;
• whether you have been awarded benefits because of illness or disability including Disability Living Allowance (Care component), Personal Independence Payment (Daily living component), Attendance Allowance, Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit, Employment and Support Allowance;
• the level of care that you need and whether this is likely to change in the future;
• the ability of your carer to provide the level of care required, e.g. including whether they have their own medical needs, access to transport etc; and
• your current accommodation, and where your carer currently resides and whether the care has been sufficiently provided from this address previously and what the change is that has triggered a need to move closer.

Declarations

You are required to agree to the declarations online to confirm that you:

• have provided true, accurate and complete information;
• will notify us of any change in your circumstances within 14 days of the change;
• understand that information given on the assessment form will be shared with housing association landlords, other council departments, data matching companies and other relevant parties;
• consent to us making relevant enquiries to verify the information given on the assessment form;
• consent to the disclosure of relevant information by third parties to us, or by us to third parties; and
• understand that information provided may be used to help in the detection and prevention of fraud.

Fair processing notice

The Council is under a duty to protect the public funds it administers and to this end may use the information you provide for the prevention and detection of fraud. It may also share this information with other Council departments, other local authorities, government agencies and credit referencing agencies for the detection and prevention of crime.

Offences related to information given or withheld by applicants

It is an offence under the Housing Act 1996 and/or the Fraud Act 2006 for anyone seeking help from the Council to:

• give false or misleading information; or
• withhold information that we have asked for on an assessment form or in subsequent correspondence; or
• fail to tell us of a relevant change in their circumstances which could affect the priority they have been awarded.

This may result in prosecution, your application being suspended or cancelled and/or any tenancy granted to you being terminated. Prosecution by the Council could result in a sentence of up to ten years in prison.

Any decision regarding criminal proceedings will be made in accordance with the Council’s Housing Services Anti-Fraud Policy and its associated Sanctions Policy.

It is your responsibility to inform us of any change that could affect the priority that has been awarded. If we offer affordable housing to you and, on further investigation, it appears that your circumstances had changed before the offer in a way that affected your housing priority; we reserve the right to withdraw the offer. While the investigation is ongoing the housing association may choose not to hold the property for you.

When housing has been allocated based on false or misleading information, legal action may be taken to obtain possession of the property. We will decide when these provisions apply and when to begin criminal proceedings.

Data Protection

The council adheres to the Data Protection Act 1998 and any other legislation to protect applicants’ personal information and will process it for the purposes as stated and in our Privacy notice in accordance with the applicant’s rights.

A copy of our privacy notice can be found here: Housing applications and homelessness privacy notice – Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council (tmbc.gov.uk)

Data collected from applications for housing is processed in line with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). Applicants have the right to see information on their file relating to their application except where this involves confidential third-party information. If an applicant is not eligible for inclusion on the register, does not respond to an annual review of their entry on the register or is removed from the register, their records will be kept for seven years before being redacted on our housing system.

Equal opportunities

We promote equal opportunities for all applicants regardless of race, colour, gender, nationality, religion or belief, sexuality, disability, marital status, pregnancy/maternity, family circumstances or age. To help us apply our equality and diversity policy and to ensure that there is genuine equality of opportunity in access to affordable housing, we collect data for monitoring purposes only. We ask yo