How to Apply - Three easy steps
Refusals
1) Check you can apply to move. Tenants who are not meeting their current tenancy agreement e.g. not paying their rent or causing antisocial behaviour will not be able to apply to move until any issues are addressed.
One of the underlying principles of Choice Based Lettings (CBL) is that customers express an interest only in those homes that they would wish to accept. As people have proactively chosen to bid for the home, refusals of offers should not occur frequently. To encourage people to be serious about the bids they place, the following arrangements are in place:
2) Complete a short application on our website www.newcharter.co.uk or call into one of our Hubs (contact details are on the back of this leaflet). 3) Once your application is registered and approved by your Neighbourhood Co-ordinator you can start bidding. Please remember it is your responsibility to provide evidence requested, if you delay you will not be made an offer of housing. Please only bid on properties you really want as we will suspend applicants who make unreasonable refusals. Advertised homes will indicate the group of bidders which will receive preference. However, if there are no suitable bids from that group, we will consider other bids ranked according to their position in band.
General Scheme bids with Community Contribution Open to bids from all General Scheme applicants
Before refusing any offer of a tenancy, customers will be advised that doing so could adversely affect their application. Refusals will be assessed to determine whether they are “reasonable”. It is not practical to be precise in defining what is a reasonable or unreasonable refusal, but examples include: Reasonable Refusals are based on: • Something the applicant wouldn’t have known or been expected to know when they placed their bid • Error in advert information Unreasonable Refusals are based on: • Something the applicant would have known when they bid e.g. area • Trivial e.g. colour of door, south facing garden • Repairs we will remedy whilst empty or post sign up • No response to attempts to contact
Preference to:
Bids from New Charter tenants with preference to band 1 or Community Contribution Open to bids from all New Charter tenants
Some properties, due to their nature, sheltered housing and groups of properties designed for and predominantly occupied by older people may be targeted reserved for single people or couples aged 55+. This will be indicated in the advert. Applicants may place up to 3 bids each advert cycle.
• Requests for work that would exceed our published Lettability Standard Unreasonable refusals will trigger the following actions: • 1 refusal 3 months deferred • 2nd refusal within a 12 month period 6 months deferred • 3rd refusal within a 12 month period application cancelled. No new application for a minimum of 12 months (this may be extended in some circumstances)