Offer

Shortlisting

Applicants will typically be shortlisted based upon the number of bedrooms required to accommodate the household size (i.e. depending on number and age of occupants). Applicants are assigned a priority band (as outlined in Section 5 of this Policy), based upon the information disclosed on the application form. The Band awarded reflects the household’s housing need and hence overall priority for social housing. Band 1 is Urgent priority, Band 1 -REDUCED is high priority, Band 2 is medium priority and Band 3 is low priority.

The additional criteria, which prioritise applicants within a particular band – is ‘time accrued’ or ‘waiting time’. Therefore those who have been registered longer within a particular band receive priority over those within the same band who have registered more recently. Therefore for each property all eligible applicants are prioritised by priority band and then time accrued within said band. Therefore where multiple applications are received for a property – the applicant with the highest band and most time accrued within that band (or longest waiting time) will top of the shortlist for that property.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In the unlikely event that applications for a property are received from two or more applicants with the same priority banding and the same time accrued – the applicant that applies first within the advertising cycle for the property will be top of the shortlist. If still a ‘dead heat’ the Housing Solutions Team has the discretion to prioritise the applicants based upon the circumstances of the cases.

What type and size of home may be offered?

In general, the following households will be offered the following accommodation:

Household	Property type and number of bedrooms.
Single people	Bedsit, 1 bedroom flat/bungalow (dependent on needs)/1 bedroom house
Couple	1 bedroom Flat/Maisonette, bungalow (dependent on needs), 1 bedroom house
Couple/Single person who is pregnant (Subject to MATb1 Form provided form 26 weeks)	2 bedroom flat/maisonette, bungalow (dependent on needs), 2 Bedroom house
Parent /Couple with 1 child	2 bedroom flat/maisonette, bungalow (dependent on needs), 2 Bedroom house
Parent /Couple with 2 children	Based on children being of the same gender and under the age of 16 years old/different gender and under the age of 10 years old - 2 bedroom flat/maisonette, bungalow (dependent on needs), 2 Bedroom house Or Children of different gender and over the age of 10 years old - 3 bedroom flat/maisonette, bungalow (dependent on needs), 3 Bedroom house
Parent /Couple with 3 children	Based on 2 children being of the same gender and under the age of 16 years old - 3 bedroom flat/maisonette, bungalow (dependent on needs), 3 Bedroom house
Parent /Couple with 4 children or more	3 bedroom or more flat/maisonette, bungalow (dependent on needs), 3 Bedroom or more house. 2 children can share a room if Under 16 years old and same gender or both under the age of 10 years old and of different gender.
2 or more single adults	This will be dependant on the number of single adulta residing in the property. but will be 2 bed or more to provide a bedroom for each single Adult in the household. It is important to recognise that larger adult only households requiring larger proeperties should consider splitting their household to increase opportunity of finding suitable housing as larger social housing properties of 4 bedroom or more are limited in the borough.

There are a few exceptions to this:

Bungalows will be allocated to households with a family member over the age of 50. If there are no eligible households meeting the criteria then other people will be considered below this age taking account of their circumstances. This does not apply to specifically adapted properties or Older Persons Accommodation & Independent Living Schemes
Older Persons Accommodation & Independent Living Schemes will be allocated in line with the respective landlord’s specific age criteria (i.e. these may differ by Registered SocialLandlord).
Adapted properties - Some community housing has been specially adapted to meet people’s needs or has the potential to be adapted to meet people’s needs. Within Merthyr Tydfil adapted community housing is not administered separately from the Common Housing Register, but instead, is an integral part of the one system. The adapted features of a property will be made clear within the property advert, posted by the respective Registered Community Landlord partner. There will be requirement to provide supporting evidence from a relevant Health Professional or COT’s team to support the need for the specialist adaptions.

Making an Offer to a Shortlisted Applicant

Where an applicant comes top of the shortlist, the Registered Social Landlord for the respective property will carry out a further verification of the applicant’s eligibility and priority. Where the applicant satisfies the verification check of the RSL a viewing shall be arranged. Providing the applicant is content with the property following the viewing, a formal offer of the accommodation shall be made to the applicant within a maximum of 24 hours.

IMPORTANT NOTE: For applicants with a housing related debt (and likely to have a reduced preference sanction imposed on them), at the point of offer, the applicant MUST sign up to a fair and reasonable repayment plan to repay the certified debt to the relevant party. Should the applicant refuse to set up a repayment plan to clear the debt over a reasonable period (to be determined by the party owed the debt); then an offer may not be forthcoming or may be revoked if already made.

Accepting an Offer

Applicants typically have 24 hours to accept or refuse an offer of accommodation (this may be extended to up to 3 working days in exceptional circumstances). Where no contact/response has been made within the 24 hour offer period – the RSL reserves the right to deem this as a refusal of said offer and can immediately revoke their offer, without further recourse to the initial shortlisted applicant; and can immediately begin to engage with the next applicant on the shortlist. (i.e. the applicant in position no.2 on the shortlist). In the unlikely event of multiple refusals of a formal offer – the RSL shall continue to engage with the applicants on the shortlist in sequence.

Circumstances where an offer may not be made by an RSL

In certain circumstances a formal offer will not be made to an applicant if for example:

Since joining the scheme an applicant has become ineligible.
The applicants’ circumstances have changed since the priority band was awarded and the applicant is no longer entitled to the same level of priority.
The applicant cannot afford the rent and service charge of the property.
The landlord has a significant housing management reason not to offer a property citing the specific reason. As specified in Section 11.11 in the Allocations for community housing policy.
The applicant is currently under offer on a previous shortlist

Refusing an offer

In the case where an applicant is awarded Band 1 Reduced or Band 2, applications will have their priority band reduced in accordance with Allocation of Community housing policy if they have refused 2 reasonable offers of accommodation. Where an applicant is owed a homelessness duty and refused 1 reasonable offer of accommodation this will result in a review of the Homelessness application and having the duty removed as a result which could also result in a loss of any priority band status provided.

If properties have been refused as per the above, an application will be placed into No Priority band for 3 months, and then moved back to Band 3. New supporting evidence will be required to review the need for a higher priority band based on the current circumstances and housing needs.

If an applicant does not reply to an offer within 24 hours of the offer being made (up to 3 working days may be allowed in exceptional circumstances), then the offer will be deemed to have been refused and the property will be offered to the next applicant.