Agenda item

Cllr Guest announced that she requested this report to come to overview and scrutiny because she had had an issue in her ward.

The mother had not assigned her house to her son and then lost capacity and then her son had his tenancy removed by DBC.

Cllr Guest said we need to have a policy for when someone loses their capacity, she asked if Power of Eternity entitles someone else to assign the house to them?

Cllr Mahmood asked the office to present the report before questions were asked.

A Vincent said yes it’s a complicated area of the housing law it relates to assignments and successions and he differentiated the two.

Successions and assignments can only happen once, this causes some difficulty when that has been used up.

A Vincent said that assignments can only happen once they have exceptions and can make some discretion.

There is a statutory succession if the property is correct for the remaining household that would be ok but if there was an issue with the size of the property there is no legal right for a person to succeed the tenancy.

We then make a judgment as to whether they move to a smaller property or if they have any duty at all to house someone.

Cllr Mahmood said you can’t make someone homeless can you?

A Vincent said they could make people homeless what they wouldn’t do is make someone who they consider is statutory homeless. Statutory duty, for example would a house hold with children, where as a single women or man they would not be considered as statutory so therefore they could be made homeless.

Cllr Mahmood raised an issue; if someone is homeless they come to the Council anyway!

A Vincent said yes but it doesn’t mean we house them, it’s only if they have a priority need.

Cllr Imarni also said that she knew of someone in the Hemel area who has lived in a DBC property for 20years with their mother and they were told that they can’t be added to the property tenancy so if the situation then turned out like Cllr Guests there was no ability to transfer the tenancy.

A Vincent gave an example of survivorship and that would then equal to one statutory right, which would then use it up. Children do not have a statutory right; this is not good practice however the son would have a statutory right if anything happened to the mother.

Cllr Mahmood referred to 2.1 from March 2012 it says things have changed, is that what you are telling us now about children?

A Vincent said if the tenancy is older than 2012 then the tenancy right will be obtained if it’s newer than that then children don’t have a statutory right in law.

N Harden added to that it’s a Localism Act 2011 section 160.

Cllr Mahmood said you talked about 3 types of tenancies, secure, flexible and introductory. Could you please explain?

 A Vincent said introductory happens in the 1^st year it’s for the tenant to prove their the sort of person we want to house.

Flexible is a 5 year fixed term plus the 1 year introductory. Generally new tenants get this.

A secure tenancy has been in place since 1983 the rights are the same but they don’t have a fixed tenancy. Sheltered housing would have a secure tenancy.

Cllr Mahmood said if they were looking at modifying this policy what would they do to appease these cases.

A Vincent said each request is done on merits and they look at the circumstances of the household and the accommodation available, largely they do make the right decision. There is a review opportunity for those that aren’t happy with the decision. It goes through 2 tiers of management Andy Vincent does think we should take this to the Senior Management Team to scrutinise the decision in terms off acceptation of the allocation policy. He also advised that the Councillors should ask to have a look at any acceptations of the allocations policy being made and what the outcomes have been and suggested this is brought back to the committee as a report

Cllr Mahmood agreed.

Cllr Guest thanked everyone on this and said it’s been very helpful and illuminating and understands the system on merits.

Action:  None

Outcome: Report was noted.