Customers will have their household’s housing needs categorised into one of three bands on the Leeds Homes Register:
Band A: this band consists of customers requiring urgent re-housing where the council has a legal duty to consider them for accommodation.
Band B: this band consists of those customers in non-urgent need whom the council has a legal duty to consider for re-housing.
Band C: this band consists of all other customers, including those:
With no assessed housing need
- Whose priority award (Band A or Band B) has expired
- Whose priority has been removed after they refused a reasonable offer of accommodation
- Without a local connection to Leeds (the exceptions to this will be customers without a local connection accepted under the witness protection scheme).
BITMO on behalf of the council will assess housing needs when it receives information that indicates an assessment for one of the priority bands is warranted.
This includes:
Information on the housing application
- When informed of a change of circumstance
- As part of a pro-active review of the customer’s housing need
- When the customer, or their advocate, provides information that indicates that an assessment for one of the priority bands is required
Upon a change of circumstances anyone has a right to have their housing need re-assessed at any time during the lifespan of their application.
If you need to notify us of any changes in your circumstances since you completed your Leeds Homes membership form you can download and complete the form either from the right hand side of this page or from the Leeds Homes websitewww.leedshomes.org.uk.
When a change of circumstances form has been complete we will arrange for an officer to call to your home to carry out an assessment on your housing needs. The officer will do a report on their findings and this will be presented to the Tenancy Manager who will make a decision as to which is the most appropriate band that the customer should be placed in. An assessment of housing needs can also be undertaken by Strategic Housing Services.
If the change of circumstances involves medical needs we will issue the customer with a medical form to complete and return to the Medical Re-housing Team who will then arrange to call to your home to carry out a medical assessment.
An award of priority will be made from the date the housing needs assessment is completed, however there can be exceptions to this which are:
Care leavers – on their initial approach for housing, priority will be backdated to the care leaver’s 16th birthday.
- Permanent decants (clearance) – the priority will be backdated to the date of the relevant Environment and Neighbourhoods delegated decision powers of a Council Executive Board decision on clearance.
- Leeds City Council or Education Leeds Service tenants – in cases of retirement, redundancy or redeployment the priority may be backdated to six months prior to their retirement, redundancy or redeployment date.
Date of Registration Quota System
Date of Registration Quota System means that 25% of council homes will be let to the person who has been waiting the longest (with the earliest registration date) with a local connection to the Belle Isle area.
The quota will apply across all areas and property types, with the exception of adapted homes. This exception is to ensure disabled people in housing need are prioritised for offers of adapted properties ahead of other customers.
Every fourth property by type and area will be included in the 25% quota.
Deliberate worsening of circumstances
People who deliberately make their housing circumstances worse in order to obtain a higher priority will have their preference reduced and will be placed at the bottom of Band B. Examples of deliberately worsening circumstances may include:
Giving up a suitable property to move in to an overcrowded situation
- Giving up a suitable adapted property to move into a property which doesn’t meet the customer’s needs
- Causing damage to, or failing to maintain their property to the extent that they lack facilities, or the property becomes hazardous
- Staff are unable to establish a reasonable justification for the customer’s current housing situation
For further information on how priority is awarded please contact Joanne Earnshaw, Lesley Fothergill or Keith Wigglesworth on 0113 2141833.