Homeless or at risk of losing your home

Where we accept that there’s reason to believe you may be homeless or threatened with homelessness, we must carry out inquiries to satisfy whether you’re eligible for assistance and if so, what duties are owed.

Applicants who are eligible and homeless or threatened with homelessness must have an assessment of their case, which includes assessing:

• the circumstances that have caused them to be homeless or threatened with homelessness
• their housing needs, and what accommodation would be suitable for them, their household and anybody who might reasonably be expected to live with them; and
• the support that would be necessary for them, and anybody who will be living with them to have to have and sustain suitable accommodation

We’ll also agree a Personalised Housing Plan (PHP) with the applicant. This plan will set out the reasonable steps that we’ll take to help the applicant prevent or relieve their homelessness and will contain steps that the applicant is required to take themselves (known as mandatory steps). The plan may also include steps that we consider advisable for the applicant to take.

The assessment and PHP will be kept under review and any amendments will be notified to the applicant. We can end our duty to the applicant as a result of the applicant’s deliberate and unreasonable refusal to co-operate.

A person is threatened with homelessness if they’re likely to become homeless within 56 days. A person is also threatened with homelessness if a valid Section 21 has been issued, and the notice will expire within 56 days. You can find more information on Section 21’s on our Advice for private rented tenants page.

If we’re satisfied that someone applying for housing assistance is eligible and is in threat of homelessness, we have a duty to work with the person to help prevent them from becoming homeless. This is known as the Prevention Duty.

The first option we’ll explore with them is to help them remain in their current home where it is possible. Where this is not possible, we’ll help to secure alternative accommodation that the applicant can moved into in a planned way. This will often involve taking steps to extend an applicant’s stay in their existing accommodation until they can move.

There’s a number of different factors that determine whether a person is homeless.

A person is homeless if they have no accommodation in the UK or elsewhere which is available for their occupation and which that person has a legal right to occupy.

A person is also homeless if they have accommodation but can’t secure entry to it, or the accommodation is a moveable structure, such as a vehicle or vessel designed or adapted for human habitation and there is nowhere it can lawfully be placed in order to provide accommodation.

A person may also be treated as homeless if they have accommodation but it wouldn’t be reasonable for them to continue to occupy that accommodation.

If we’re satisfied that a person applying for housing assistance is eligible and homeless, it places a duty on us to work with the person to help them secure accommodation. This is known as the ‘Relief Duty’.

We must take reasonable steps to help the applicant secure suitable accommodation with a reasonable prospect that it will be available for their occupation for at least 6 months.