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Scheme of Letting Priorities

Housing Acts 1966 - 2002

The purpose of the Scheme of Letting Priorities is to provide a means for determining the order of priority afforded in the letting of local authority accommodation to persons whose needs have been established in the Council’s Assessment of Housing Needs or who are accepted for inclusion in the next Assessment.

The Scheme may be inspected by any person at Áras an Chontae, James Fintan Lalor Avenue, Portlaoise during normal office hours.

Conditions for Application:

1.A housing application form must be completed in full.  Incomplete application forms will be returned to the applicant.

2.The Council reserves the right to refuse consideration of any application where the applicant has given false or misleading information.

3.On receipt of fully completed application form, the application will be assessed by the Housing Department of Laois County Council.

4.All applications on medical grounds must be certified by a General Practitioner and/or other relevant Practitioner.

5.Only medical conditions relevant to the applicant’s housing needs will be taken into consideration.

6. The Council reserves the right to discuss any application for accommodation with an Garda Síochana. 

7. In the interests of Good Estate Management the Council reserves the right to suspend an application if the applicant(s) have a history of anti-social behaviour.

8.An application on compassionate grounds must be independently verified by the relevant agency/practitioner.

9.Priorities for the allocation of local authority accommodation shall be determined in accordance with the Points System which was adopted as part of the Laois County Council Scheme of Letting Priorities. (Appendix 1)

10.In a situation where an equality of points exists, priority will be determined by lot.

11.Allocation of local authority accommodation is an Executive Function of the County Manager.

12.  (i)    One-bedroom houses will only be offered to one or two person households.

      (ii)  two-bedroom houses will only be offered to households consisting of three    persons or less.

      (iii) three-bedroom houses will only be offered to households consisting of between two and five persons inclusive.

      (iv)  four-bedroom houses will only be offered to households consisting of three or more persons.

13.The relevant Elected Members will be notified in writing 48 hours in advance of provisional offers being made to the successful applicants.  Where a property requires immediate occupation or where an emergency situation arises, the Council reserves the right to allocate the property prior to notification of the relevant Elected Members.

14.The relevant Elected Members are Cathaoirleach of the County of Laois, Elected Members for the appropriate Electoral Area, Dail Deputies and Members of the Seanad.

15.Single applicants without children must have reached the age of 18 years on or before the date of application.

16.An applicant must have reached the age of 18 years on or before the date of any allocation of property.

17.All offers of accommodation to applicants are provisional until the Tenancy Agreements are signed by the appropriate parties.

18.Where two offers of accommodation, including an offer of Voluntary housing, which in the opinion of the Council are considered reasonable, are made to an applicant and are refused the Council may reduce the priority of that applicant.  All reasons for refusals of offers must be stated in writing and independently validated by a statutory agency.

19.Nothing in this Scheme shall operate to prevent the Council from providing accommodation where the need arises as a result of an emergency. 

Transfers

A tenant of the Council may, with the consent of the Council, exchange the tenancy of his/her existing dwelling for the tenancy of another Council dwelling or of a dwelling of another Local Authority under the following conditions:

1.All rents and other charges due and payable in respect of their existing accommodation have been fully discharged.

2.The tenants have complied with all the conditions of the Letting Agreement.

3.In the opinion of the Council, the exchange must result in either tenant being appropriately accommodated

4.The tenants must not have engaged in any anti-social behaviour in the previous three years.

5.The tenants must have resided in their current dwelling for at least two years.

The Council may, in exceptional circumstances, waive compliance with any or all of the above conditions.

Prioritisation of Transfer Applications

1.Single applications for transfers will be prioritised in accordance with Laois County Council’s Scheme of Letting Priorities.

2.The date of application for a transfer will only be set after all conditions for a transfer have been met in the opinion of the Council.

3.Mutual transfers will not be subject to prioritisation in accordance with Laois County Council’s Scheme of Letting Priorities.

4.Transfers will only be granted in the following circumstances:
a) Overcrowding.
b) Medical.
c) applicants who wish to down size.
d) Exceptional circumstances.

All reasons for applications for a transfer must be independently validated by the relevant agency.

Nothing shall prevent the Council from transferring tenants to another dwelling in the following situations:

1.Where there is a risk to the health and safety of the tenants
2.For reasons of redevelopment. 

Tenancies

All tenancies of Local Authority dwellings will normally be in the joint names of husband and wife but the Council may put the tenancy in the name of either party in exceptional circumstances.  In cases other than husband and wife, joint/multiple tenancies may be created where it is considered appropriate. 

Succession of Tenancies

On the death of a tenant, the tenancy may be transferred to the tenant’s partner/spouse or to a member of the Tenants immediate family normally resident in the dwelling at the date of the tenant’s death. 

In determining whether or not the tenant’s immediate family was normally resident in the dwelling on the date of the tenant’s death, details included on previous Rent Assessments will be taken into account.

Surrender of Tenancy

Tenancies must be surrendered in writing by each tenant.  The keys of the property must only be surrendered to an employee of Laois County Council.

Dependants

In order to be taken into consideration, dependants must be permanently residing with the applicant/s and must continue to reside permanently with the applicant/s if local authority accommodation is offered. 

Illegal Occupation

Applicants who take up illegal occupation of a Local Authority dwelling will not be considered for the tenancy of a dwelling unless such dwelling is willingly surrendered to the Council in the same condition it was prior to being illegally occupied. 

A person who takes up illegal occupation of a Local Authority dwelling who has willingly surrendered the dwelling to the Council will only be reconsidered for inclusion on the Housing Waiting List at the discretion of the Council. 

Former Tenant

Arrears of rent accrued by a former tenant must be fully cleared before any new application for accommodation will be considered.

The previous record of a former tenant will be taken into consideration in deciding on any new application for accommodation.

Termination of Application

Laois County Council reserves the right to terminate an application in the following circumstances:

a) Failure to notify a change of address, in writing, to the Council.

b) Unavailability of applicant for assessment on more than two occasions.

c)Failure to provide information necessary to enable an appropriate assessment of the applicant’s situation.

Specified Categories of Need

The Council may from time to time, determine as they see fit, to set aside for persons of such category or categories as the Council may decide a particular number or a proportion of the dwellings becoming available for letting in new developments only.  Where such a number or proportion is set aside, priority should be afforded to the specified categories in the letting of those dwellings.  The specified categories are as follows: 

1.Single applicants.
2.Members of the Travelling Community.
3.Elderly (over 65 years).
4.Disabled.  

A minimum of 10% of all new developments will be set aside for the above categories.  This provision is subject to the accommodation being appropriate to the needs of particular individuals.  This provision does not prevent particular schemes being dedicated for specified categories of applicants e.g.  housing scheme for the elderly.

Property Owners

The following property owners will be considered for inclusion in Laois County Council’s Assessment of Housing Needs:

A.Applicants in need of alternative accommodation (as determined by Laois County Council) who own their own accommodation and that are in a position to sell the property and where the proceeds of the sale would not be adequate to provide alternative accommodation suitable to their needs.

B.Property owners not in a position to sell the property and who have been assessed as being in need of alternative accommodation.

Downgrading of Accommodation

The Council in assessing an application for accommodation may reduce the priority of the applicant/s where the Council has reason to believe that he/she has deliberately or without good and sufficient reason, done or failed to do anything (other that an action or omission in good faith) in consequence of which the accommodation he/she is so occupying is less suitable for his/her adequate housing than other accommodation which it would have been or it would be reasonable for him/her to occupy.

Appeals

Every applicant has the right to appeal if they are not satisfied with the manner in which their application has been dealt with.  The final decision of appeal will be made by the appropriate Director of Services.

Appendix 1: Scheme of Letting - Points System