Apply for council housing
Housing register
- Applying for housing – the facts
- Applying for housing – the housing register
- How to apply
- Telling us of change of circumstances
- Information we need
- Documents required
- Supplying false information
- How long will I have to wait?
- Who can apply
- Who cannot apply
- Dispelling some myths
- Who can get housing
- Allocation policy (pdf 306KB)
- Medical assessments
- Housing welfare panel
- Accessible housing register
- Direct offers
- Overcrowding
- Online forms
- Housing reviews and appeals
- Unacceptable behaviour
- Probationary tenancies
Applying for housing – the facts
We are not able to offer a home to everybody who applies for housing. For many it will mean waiting for years before they can be housed. Therefore, our Housing Policy and Scheme of Allocations (pdf 306KB) attempts to ensure that those households with the greatest and the most pressing need for housing get housed first based on the points and banding system.
Through H&F Homes (opens new window) we currently own over 1,730 individual homes. Additionally Registered Social Landlord homes are managed by 46 housing associations within the borough.
There is an average of over 11,770 households currently on the housing register waiting for housing. Last year we housed 1,125 housing register applicants - that is less than 10% of all households waiting for housing.
This means there are not enough homes to house everyone. As a result, you are likely to find that you are not rehoused as we know there is not enough council and housing association housing.
See how long will I have to wait? for an estimate of how long you may have to wait. View other rehousing opportunities and housing options that you can find out about yourself.
Applying for housing – the Housing Register
The Housing Register administers the list of people who have applied for council housing, the initial assessment of shared ownership applications and rehousing options including
We manage the allocation of permanent general needs council housing through the Locata (opens new window)scheme. This is a choice based lettings system where those on the housing register choose which properties they would like to be considered for and bid for them, rather than being allocated a property by the council. This system embraces choice for applicants and transparency in the allocation of housing.
If you are already a H&F Homes (opens new window) council tenant please contact your local area housing office who will deal with you as a transfer request.
Applying for housing – how to apply
- Complete an online housing registration application (word 1.2MB)
- Download the housing register application form (pdf 388KB)
- Visit us or write to us at 145 King Street, Hammersmith, London W6 9XY
- Telephone us at 020 8753 4198 to request a form
- Email us on housing.register@lbhf.gov.uk to request a form
- Online at www.locata.org.uk (opens new window)
What happens if my circumstances change?
You must let us know if there are any changes in your circumstances (word 171KB), which might affect your application. Common changes you must tell us about include:
- A change in your health, which is affected by your housing
- Someone in the household becoming pregnant
- A member of your family currently living with you who is moving away
When you tell us about a change that affects your application for rehousing we may ask for documents or information to confirm this. Your application will be put on hold until we receive this information and during this time you are unable bid for any properties. Your application will be reassessed and may result in you moving to a different band. Your priority date may also change. We will write to you and tell you about changes to your application.
Applying for housing - information we need
Make sure you give us as much relevant information as possible such as medical information. We treat each application to join the register on its individual merits.
Documents required when offered a viewing of a property
You must provide independent documentary proof of:
- Your relationship to all those named on the application
- Your immigration status
- The property you currently live in
- A local connection with Hammersmith & Fulham (for example, if you live, work or have family in the borough)
If you are made an offer of housing, for every person named on your application we must see at least two of the following forms of proof of identity and proof of where they currently live:
- Full birth certificate
- Medical card
- Marriage certificate
- Driving licence
- National Insurance card
- Passport
- Benefit book or wages slip
Once your completed application form has been processed and it has been decided that you are eligible, your information will be entered on to our computerised register. We will follow the rules set out in the Data Protection Act which explains how personal records should be kept.
It is a criminal offence to lie on your application or knowingly supply false information in order by deceit to obtain public housing. In such cases the council will actively seek a prosecution which may result in a prison sentence or significant fine.
For your information housing applications are forwarded to the council's Corporate Fraud section who carry out a full verifications, check on what you have uttered and written and carry out visits to your addresses.
You will be awarded banding A,B,C or D based on the information you provide us in your application. When a home becomes available only those applicants who are in bands A, B or C will be likely to be successful when bidding.
View Locata's Choice Based Lettings for information about how your application is banded and how to bid for a home
Some people are given a lower priority on the housing register if they have one or more of the following:
- Large assets or
- Large incomes
- No local connection
- Satisfactory housing
If you pay the highest rate of income tax or if you have more than £30,000 worth of assets you will be awarded a lower priority. Exceptions may sometimes be made in specific circumstances. If this is relevant to you, you may want to think whether low cost home ownership is an option, please view h&f Home Buy to be directed to our home buy pages.
For those registering in 2008 and allocated a Band C link priority, you can expect the following average waiting times:
Sheltered - 15 months
Studio flat - 5 years
1 bedroom flat - 7 years
2 bedroom flat - 7 years
2 bedroom house - 8 years
3 bedroom flat - 8 years
3 bedroom house - 12 years
4 bedrooms - 12 years
For households in temporary accommodation the average waiting times is:
1 bedroom - 1 year
2 bedroom - 4+ years
3 bedroom - 5+ years
4 bedroom - 7+ years
Who can apply to join the housing register
- Anyone who is over the age of 18 and resident in the UK
- Non-dependant applicants aged 16 and 17 if they require independent or semi-independent accommodation not provided by Social Services, for example
- Lone teenage parents under 18
- Young people leaving care
Offers made to young people under 18 will normally be of licenses to occupy accommodation, rather than tenancies
You can also register with any housing authority in the UK. However assistance by this method is dependent on the priority awarded to your application and the availability of resources in the area you are interested in.
Who cannot apply to the housing register
You can join unless:
- You are under 18 years of age
- You are subject to immigration control
- You (or a member of your household) are considered unsuitable to be a tenant because of unacceptable behaviour (e.g. you were evicted from accommodation in the past because of anti-social behaviour or rent arrears).
- Already a secure or introductory tenant of the council (see your local area housing office who can deal with you as a transfer request applicant
- You are a dependant child
If you are excluded or removed from the register we will write and tell you the reasons why you are not eligible. You are legally entitled to request a review of our decision.
There are a lot of myths surrounding who gets social housing, particularly in relation to people from abroad. The council is not legally permitted to house certain persons subject to immigration control including:
- Over stayers and visitors and visitors to the country
- Illegal entrants
- Asylum seekers
- People in the country on condition that they will not have recourse to public funds
- Persons from abroad who fail the habitual residence test
- Persons from abroad who are in breach of the European Community Right of Residence directive
- Persons from abroad who have been subject of a sponsorship agreement for less than five years and whose sponsors are still alive.
Some people also claim that the council houses only black people or only white people. There is no truth in this. The council does not decide who gets housing on the basis of a persons skin colour, race or any other characteristic but simply only on the basis of an individuals need for rehousing and not which group they belong to.
To find out more visit our asylum support web page.
Who gets housing from the housing register?
View the allocations policy (pdf 306KB).
What the law says
The Housing Act 1996 (Part 6) and amendments made by the Homelessness Act 2002 requires us to keep a confidential register of people who want to be considered for social housing in the borough. The council must produce a policy and make this publicly available that explains how it will decide who will get priority for rehousing and what proportion of its allocations (homes that it has available) will be made to homeless households.
Read the council's scheme of allocation (pdf 306KB).
Medical assessment – requirements
We receive many applications for medical assessments and it is rare that additional priority is awarded. Your condition must be adversely affected by your housing.
To help ensure we can carry out a full and accurate medical assessment it is important you provide the following information:
- Your medical condition/s,
- Medications taken,
- Name and address of doctor/ consultant/ hospital, and
- How your condition/s are affected by your housing.
A letter is not required from your doctor, as usually by telling us about your illness and the medication you take, we can make an accurate assessment. If we need more in-depth information, we will write to your doctor or consultant.
We are unable to accept incomplete applications as the doctor needs all information available to make an accurate assessment.
Unless you are able to submit new information, unavailable at the time you submitted your application for medical review, for example, your condition has become worse, we cannot review any decision for some time, usually six months.
Medical assessment - questions and answers
We can carry out a medical assessment on an applicant to see if it is appropriate to award additional priority on medical grounds. Very few applicants are awarded high priority in this category, with only 11 applicants placed into band ‘A’ or ‘B’ on medical grounds between September 2005 and September 2006.
Who is the Council’s Medical Adviser?
The Council’s Medical Adviser (or CMA) is a registered GP who advises us on the essential housing needs of our applicants. He consults for many other local authorities in the country, including most of the other Locata partners.
How does the assessment process work?
Applicants are either asked to submit any medical information that they have, or are given a form to complete. This information is then passed to the Council’s Medical Adviser (CMA) for his recommendation. The Assessment Officer considers all the information available, including the CMA’s recommendations and makes a decision as to whether it would appropriate to award additional priority. A letter is then sent to the applicant to explain the outcome of the medical assessment.
How do you decide who gets priority?
When we carry out an assessment for priority on medical grounds, we take three things into consideration. Firstly, we look at how severe your medical condition is. Secondly, we look at how your current housing situation is affecting your illness. Lastly – but most importantly – we look at how a move to alternative accommodation will affect your illness. We consider all this information before deciding what kind of priority would be appropriate.
I claim disability-related benefits, but I don’t have any extra priority. Why?
We realise that many of our applicants suffer from uncomfortable and debilitating illnesses. However, if your current accommodation is having a minimal effect or no negative affect on your illness, we won’t award you extra priority. The council awards priority based on housing need and not just based on the fact that you are ill.
The damp and mould in my housing is affecting my health!
Because of the short supply of housing we have, when we assess applicants for priority on medical grounds, we look to see what other things can be done in order to help you. It is the legal responsibility of your landlord to make sure that your home remains in a good condition. If your landlord is unwilling to fix the problem, or you would like further advice and assistance, you can contact the council’s Private Housing Services department on 020 8753 1221 or email them on phs@lbhf.gov.uk.
The overcrowding in my housing is affecting my health!
The council understands that overcrowding can have an affect on a person’s health. However, the council will have taken this into consideration by awarding you additional priority for overcrowding.
How can the CMA make a recommendation if he hasn’t even met me?
There are two main reasons why the CMA does not personally examine our applicants. The first reason is that we have very limited resources and it is not practical to carry out individual examinations. We rely on your consultations with your own GP to provide us with the information we need. Secondly, based on the information that you have submitted, the CMA is able to determine the type and severity of your illness. This is why we ask you to provide us with as much detail as possible, especially the type of medication you have been prescribed.
How do I appeal the decision of the medical assessment?
You cannot appeal the decision of a medical assessment, although we are happy to review any decision after some time (normally about six months). However, if you submit any new information, or your condition gets worse, we will carry out another assessment.
Do I need to get a letter from my doctor?
You are never asked to submit a letter from your doctor when we carry out a medical assessment. Usually, by just telling us about your illness and the medication you have been prescribed, we can make an accurate assessment. Sometimes, if we need more in-depth information, we will write to your doctor or specialist.
This panel meets monthly and will assess cases that fall outside the council’s allocations scheme.
The panel consists of Housing, Social Services, and Health Authority staff where this would be appropriate. The panel considers referrals where a family or person has a special need for settled accommodation on welfare grounds because of, for example:
- Fostering or adoption arrangements
- Persons giving or receiving care
- The need to deliver a Social Services care plan
- Child protection issues
- Vulnerable people with mental health or multiple problems
- Other circumstances that are not covered in the allocations scheme
Referrals can be made by council staff and voluntary sector organisations. Applicants may refer themselves, but remember that the panel will only consider your case if your circumstances are not covered in the allocations scheme and the panel does not make medical recommendations.
The panel, after considering social/welfare circumstances, may award a change of ‘Banding’:
Band A – Emergency Welfare Priority
Band B - Severe Social Hardship Priority
Band C – Social Hardship Priority
Band D – No Identified Social or Welfare Need
The Housing Welfare Panel will review cases where there has been a change in circumstances or new information is provided.
The Housing Welfare Panel can also give guidance on any housing features that may be needed for a case they have agreed e.g. the area in which the person should be housed.
Since July 2008, we have employed a project manager for a year to set up a team who will be responsible for assessing and surveying social housing properties within the borough to establish whether they would meet the needs of residents living with a disability. Initially the survey will focus on council properties whilst investigating how to organise surveys for all other social housing.
Through the introduction of the Accessible Housing Register we are planning to publish access and other information about all of our properties that residents can bid for through the Choice Based Lettings scheme.
The Accessible Housing Register will be the way of collecting and storing information on whether a property:
- is level access
- has steps or
- has any adaptations and so on
Applicants who have a disability can then decide if a particular property may suit them, knowing that they will be able to access the areas that they need to. Applicants will also be awarded with a new mobility category to replace the current mobility categories.
At the most appropriate time, all housing applicants will receive information and support regarding the changes and by September 2009 we fully expect that we will be able to better match disabled people to accommodation more suited to their needs.
As things progress, view “Applying for housing” and the “Adaptations” and “Disability” sections in the housing options web pages for periodic updates and news of a launch event.
Full details of the report and associated update have been commended to the Housing Scrutiny Committee Panel on the basis of demonstrating the borough's commitment to delivering better outcomes for disabled people seeking to access adapted housing and can be viewed on this agenda (pdf).
Sometimes the council makes a direct offer instead of waiting for an applicant to be rehoused through the bidding process.
Examples of when we might do this are:
- People who are living in temporary accommodation that the council has provided because they are homeless and have a limited time to bid before we look for a direct offer. The amount of time depends on the size of property that they need, but, for families, the shortest time is three years.
- Homeless families who have arranged their own temporary accommodation, with family or friends, where they only have eighteen months to bid before we start to look for a direct offer.
If this applies to you, and you have not been rehoused when the time is up, you should keep on bidding. We will start to look for a property to offer to you, but it will probably not happen straight away because there are a lot of people who are waiting for these offers.
If the council makes a direct offer, it will be based on your assessed needs and may not be in exactly the area or type of property that you would prefer, unless we have agreed that this is essential on medical or welfare grounds. If you refuse the offer you can ask us to review whether it was suitable for you.
If we decide that the property was suitable for you we will not make another offer and, if you are living in temporary accommodation that we have provided, we will cancel it. There will be clear information about what you can do and your right of appeal in your offer letter.
Overcrowding is a term that is loosely used to indicate that a household lives in accommodation which is not big enough for the size of their family, or for single people who do not have a room of their own.
Unfortunately, many households in Hammersmith & Fulham are living in some sort of overcrowded conditions. According to Census 2001 data, Hammersmith & Fulham ranks as the 9th most overcrowded borough in England and Wales (out of 376 local authorities) and over 40%¹ of the households with dependent children living in this borough suffer from some sort of overcrowding.
Statutory Overcrowding
The law defines overcrowding in a very complicated way. Council tenants who are statutorily overcrowded (as defined by the Housing Act 1985) are given high priority on the housing register and placed into band ‘B’. This kind of overcrowding is so severe that only 11 households were awarded this priority in the 12 months after the Council launched Choice Based Lettings.
General Overcrowding
Just under 50% of families on the housing register are overcrowded. This is where there are not as many bedrooms available for them in their home as the council’s policy says they would need if we rehoused them. The council understands that overcrowding can be stressful even if it is not at the levels defined in the law, and has decided to award band ‘C’ to these applicants because they live in unsatisfactory housing conditions.
¹ Calculated from Census 2001 statistical data
» Complete the Applying for Housing/Registering for Housing form (word 1.2MB)
» Download the Applying for Housing/Registering for Housing form (pdf 388KB)
» Download the Change of Circumstances form (word 171KB)
If you have already registered but have had a change in your circumstances or have additions to add to your application, please complete this form.
» Download the Transfer Application form (pdf 282KB)
If you have a change in your or one of your household’s medical or household circumstances, please complete this form. Visit this link for details of your local area office.
» Download the Housing Register Medical Assessment form (available for download shortly)
If you have a change in your or one of your household’s medical circumstances, please complete this form
If you need to move because of health or a disability you have listed on the form, you must complete both the Housing Register form and the Medical Assessment form. You must complete one medical form for each person that has a medical condition.
Reviews - How can I appeal against a decision?
If you have been refused a place on the housing register, are unhappy with your allocation of housing points or have been suspended from the waiting list, you can ask the local authority to review the decision.
For more information please contact:
New applicants - Central Rehousing service on 020 8753 4198
Transferring tenants - Local Area Housing Officer (opens new window)
Unacceptable behaviour is behaviour which, if the person concerned were a secure council tenant, would entitle the council to obtain a possession order against them on one or more of grounds 1 to 7 of schedule 2 of the Housing Act 1985.
Such behaviour includes:
- Failing to pay the rent.
- Breaching a condition of the tenancy agreement.
- Causing nuisance to neighbours.
- Being convicted of using their home for immoral or illegal purposes.
- Being convicted of an arrestable offence committed in, or in the vicinity of their home.
- Causing the condition of the property to deteriorate by deliberate act, or by neglect.
- Making a false statement to obtain a tenancy.
The council will consider whether people it has found to be guilty of such behaviour are, at the time they apply, suitable to be council tenants. People found to be unsuitable will usually be ineligible to join the housing list, with the following exception.
Where the council believes unacceptable behaviour is due to physical, mental or learning disability the person will not be determined as ineligible without first considering whether they would be able to maintain a tenancy satisfactory with appropriate care and support
In such cases we will consult as appropriate with any relevant agencies, including Social Services, the Medical Advisor and local providers of support services.
If an applicant is unhappy with the decision of the panel they may ask for a ‘Review’.
» Download our probationary tenancies information leaflet (pdf 407KB).
» Download our full guide/booklet on probationary tenancies (very large 7.67MB pdf).
| Opening hours: | Weekdays 9.00 am to 5.00 pm |
| Drop-in any time for advice and assistance with your rehousing application. If the help you need can not be given immediately, we will make an appointment for you to return. | |
| Office: | 020 8753 4198 |
| Address: | 145 King Street Hammersmith W6 9XY |
| Directions: | Next to Hammersmith Town Hall |
| Accessibility: | The building is fully wheelchair accessible. |
