Worried about becoming homeless?

South Cambridgeshire District Council has very limited housing resources. You should make every effort to try to resolve the housing difficulties you may be facing and seek advice early.

A housing officer will work with you to try to prevent you losing your current home or discuss the options available to you, to prevent you from becoming homeless.

If you are worried about becoming homeless, please contact the housing advice and options team as soon as possible for housing advice.

Homeless application

If it is not possible to prevent you from becoming homeless, you may make a homeless application. We have certain legal duties toward people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. This web page aims to give you information about the homeless application process. However, it cannot tell you what will happen in every case.

It is important to note that the homeless procedure is governed by housing law. Therefore some homeless applicants will qualify for temporary accommodation but some may only qualify for advice about finding alternative accommodation.

If you need to make a homeless application you will be interviewed by an officer from our housing advice and options team. You will also be asked to complete a form. If you need help with this please tell us.

At the interview the officer will address the following issues so that we can find out what duty we have to you under the homelessness legislation.

Am I homeless?

You are homeless if there is no accommodation available to you that you can lawfully occupy that is reasonable for you and your household. This means that there must be no alternative accommodation available to you anywhere, not just in this area.

By law you are threatened with homelessness if you are likely to become homeless within 28 days. You should get help immediately if this applies to you.

Do I qualify for help?

Some applicants who are subject to immigration control or who have been living outside the UK may not qualify for help even if they have nowhere to live. If you do not qualify you will be given advice about other help that may be available to you, such as asking social services to consider you under other legislation.

If we find that you do not qualify for help we will write to you giving our reasons for this decision.

Am I in priority need?

Temporary accommodation will only be provided for those people found to be in priority need. You are in a priority need category if:

you have dependent children who live with you
you are pregnant
you are aged 16 / 17
you are vulnerable* due to age, mental illness, physical disability or as a result of spending time in the armed forces, serving a prison sentence or having been in care or some other special reason
you are homeless in an emergency due to, for example, fire or flood.

* when assessing vulnerability, we will consider how these issues prevent you from finding accommodation and if you would be less able to cope than another person if you were homeless.

If you are not in priority need our duty to you will be limited to providing advice and help for you to find alternative accommodation.

If you are found to not be in priority need we will write to you giving our reasons for this decision.

Why have you become homeless?

The officer dealing with your application will investigate the reasons why you are homeless. These investigations will help us decide what duty if any we have to you and your family regarding temporary accommodation.

If you are found to be homeless due to a deliberate act or something you haven't done you may be found intentionally homeless. This will mean that we will not accept a full housing duty to you.

Instead temporary accommodation is provided for a limited period (usually 28 days) to give you time to find another place to stay. Examples of people being found intentionally homeless may include:

having lost accommodation by not paying the rent or mortgage when you had enough money and the ability to pay
having lost accommodation due to unreasonable behaviour.

If you are found to be intentionally homeless we will write to you giving our reasons for this decision.

Do you have a local connection?

We will also determine if you have a local connection with South Cambridgeshire. You have a local connection if:

you have lived in the district for six of the last 12 months or three out of the last five years
you have a permanent job in the district
you have a close relative (parent, sister, brother or adult child) who has lived in the district for the last five years
there is a special reason

If you do not have a local connection with South Cambridgeshire, you may be referred to another local authority where you do have a local connection. If this happens we will write to you and tell you why.

What

What help will I get if I am homeless through no fault of my own?

If we decide that you are in priority need and homeless through no fault of your own, and you meet all the other criteria, we will accept a full housing duty to you. We will write to you to tell you this. The decision letter will also tell you about reasons why this duty may stop in the future. You will be provided with temporary accommodation.

Temporary accommodation

It is important to note that temporary accommodation is likely to be hostel accommodation or a property that is one bedroom short of what you could be given on a permanent basis. This accommodation may be in any part of the district and we are unable to guarantee that it will be in your preferred area.

However, if there is no such temporary accommodation available we may have to put you in bed and breakfast accommodation until temporary accommodation is available. We cannot guarantee that the bed and breakfast accommodation will be in South Cambridgeshire.

Your right to a review

Under the Housing Act you have the right to a formal review of some of the decisions made about your homeless application. A request is only valid if it is made within 21 days of us telling you about our decision. Visit our reviewing your homelessness decision page for more information.

Permanent accommodation for homeless applicants

To qualify for permanent accommodation you must be listed on our Home-Link housing register (This link will open in a new window). Homeless applicants are placed in a higher band to reflect their housing need. The Council will have a duty to ensure that accommodation is available until you receive a permanent offer via Home-Link. Once your homeless application is approved for the first three months you can bid for any suitable properties that you are eligible for. If your bid is successful and you are made an offer, you may refuse the offer. However, at the end of the initial three month period and you have not made a successful bid, you may be offered a direct let which if you refuse will bring our duty to an end. You have a right to request a review of this decision.

If you wish to request a review, you are strongly advised to accept the offer while the review is carried out. If your review is upheld and it is decided that the offer is not suitable, alternative accommodation will be provided as soon as possible. However, if our decision remains the same following the review, we will have no further duty to you.

What choice will I have over my permanent housing?

This Council is a member of the sub-regional choice based lettings scheme, known as Home-Link (This link will open in a new window) which is designed to offer all housing register applicants as wide a choice as possible.

Points to remember

If you are at risk of losing your home, you must get help immediately. Early action can prevent you becoming homeless.
If you are a tenant, your landlord will normally have to apply to the County Court for a possession order before you can be legally evicted.
You must get advice before deciding to leave or sell accommodation you have rights to occupy.
We aim to deal with all applications in a sympathetic and polite way. We will always be fair and your case will be dealt with in the strictest confidence.

In return we ask that our staff are treated in a polite and reasonable manner.
Contact our housing advice and options team for more information.
Visit our useful contacts page for addresses and contact information where you may be able to get more help.