Down-banding
Down-banding will usually be applied if you are assessed as having deliberately worsened your housing situation. For example, you:
- have given up a suitable tenancy to move into overcrowded accommodation; or
- have transferred your property, as a homeowner, to another family member during the seven years before the date of your application; or
- have disposed of, or deprived yourself of, capital or assets which could reasonably have been used to secure housing during the seven years before the date of your application.
Down-banding will not usually be applied if you require sheltered housing or need a property adapted for wheelchair access or to meet other disability needs.
We will decide whether to apply down-banding to your application. We will write to you setting out the reasons for the decision and your right to ask for this to be reviewed. You have the right to request a review of a decision to apply a lower band to your application - see section 10. If your application has been down-banded, this decision will usually be reviewed after 12 months unless you notify us of a relevant change in your circumstances.
Exceptional priority
On occasion circumstances require an applicant to move urgently. These include cases where:
- the applicant is a high-risk offender where the Council has been asked to assist under the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements; or
- the Council has been asked by the National Witness Mobility Service to assist in relocating witness households.
There will also be other circumstances that attract exceptional priority outside of the scope of this policy and when this is the case a senior member of staff will consider such cases on an individual basis and can place the application in band A on the grounds of exceptional priority.