scot47

Housing Associations and Council Housing Departments are NOT required to demand local connections or local residence.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/be...esidence-test/


I think I would prefer advice from the CAB to the thoughts of a resident of British North America !

Editha

The council did apply the HRT, whether or not they should have done. The Sun article includes a copy of the letter.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/432039...-lived-abroad/

Editha

These two housing advice pages also say the hrt applies.

Habitual Residence Test | Housing Rights Information (England & Wales)

https://www.nhas.org.uk/docs/Habitua...test_May16.pdf

And with due respect to Scot47, the CAB page he links to doesn't actually say the hrt doesn't apply to housing.

scot47

Some landlords may use that rule. Not all do. I was the beneficiary of a landlord who chose not to demand a "local connection" as the old housing regulations described it.

Given the choice of believing "The Sun" and believing a website run by the CAB I know which I would go for.

BristolUK

Did I say they are? I said that habitual residence also applies to housing issues as well as benefits.

Well, yes, of course if you put up a link about benefits and the HRT then it will talk about benefits and the HRT.

If you go to Shelter or other HOUSING (rights advice) websites and look for habitual residency, then you will see information about it being a feature of housing issues.

See this one that is linked by your CAB link.
https://nhas.org.uk/docs/Factsheet_A..._June_2017.pdf

I would too. That's why I used the link from the CAB to confirm the information I already knew from my past Housing Connections and had already doubly confirmed from Housing organisations prior to my comment.

Not my fault if you misunderstood my post about habitual residency also applying to housing as well as benefits and mistakenly took it as a reference to local connection and local residence.

Although I concede that habitually resident in the UK is more local than Canada.

BristolUK

I think you need to look up the difference between HRT and local connection. They are two separate things. HRT is irrelevant to landlords.

scot47

That is what I was trying to get over

HRT is related to benefits. "Local connection" may be applied by landlords in accepting people on their waiting lists. Two different issues.

BristolUK

You're still not getting it apparently. HRT is related to benefits and Housing. You are talking about landlords but they have no concerns re HRT.

In response to my post saying HRT realted to benefits and Housing - as referred to in the link in the OP about the man being refused housing by the LA because they said he wasn't habitually resident) - you said "Habitual Residency Test applies to benefits from DWP. Housing is a different matter" as if HRT had absolutely nothing to do with housing.

You then went off on one dissing me because I happen to live in North America. Two of us provided HOUSING links showing the HRT does apply to Housing and you're still saying HRT applies to benefits as if applying only to benefits.

A landlord may be free to offer a tenancy to whoever he or she likes. But the council won't house someone if they've not met HRT and that's what the news report in the thread concerns.

Note the wording of the letter
If he can find a landlord willing to rent to him (which is not the same as providing housing), great, but he can't and that's why he went to the council. The story is about getting no HOUSING help from the council.

If he does find somewhere, then Housing Benefit/LHA isn't going to kick in yet either.

This is actually the point in my original comment about the HRT being designed to stop benefit tourism while it actually hit returning Brits disproportionately.

morpeth

I know someone who went through exactly that sort of situation, and received same type of letter.

BristolUK

Quite common in my last ten years working in the UK - sometimes issuing such letters from the benefit side, sometimes advocating against it for benefits and housing when working in the housing sector - voluntary and public.

scot47

Landlords in the Social Housing Sector are not free to act as they choose. They have to follow the Housing Acts and other legislation but they are not required to enforce the Habitual Residence Test.

The "Sun" and its followers can think differently if they choose.

Editha

You keep saying this Scot, but you are contradicted by virtually every reputable advice page put up by housing NGO's including Shelter. I and Bristol UK have provided you with links, which you don't look at.

You may not like advice from people living in America, or the Sun newspaper, but it is another thing entirely to ignore advice from the NHAS or CAB.

BristolUK

Unless I am mistaken, you have a history of many useful posts on this forum.

I think you may have just undone all that with this nonsense. It's a shame

rebs

This story has now popped up in our local paper (Homeless man left to "starve" on the streets is now in a care home (From Bournemouth Echo)) and he has now been housed in a care home.

The letter he had seemed to make reference to a social worker - makes you wonder how he fell between the cracks so badly without someone advocating for him until the charity worker got involved.

scot47

I would put Social Workers in the same category as "Sun" journalists !

Do not accept at face value what you read in the Murdoch Press ! Or what you read on website like this ! And when a Social Worker comes to "help" you - run a mile !