Highland Housing Register is a partnership of the following registered social landlords with housing stock in the Highland Council area:
The aim of the register is to make it easier to apply for social rented housing in the Highland Council area.
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We monitor applications and housing allocations annually. You can view the latest annual monitoring report under Current Documents.
HHR is a single Housing List which enables anyone seeking social rented housing in Highland to apply for housing from any of the partner social landlords by completing a single shared application form. Applications are assessed in terms of a single shared Highland Housing Register Allocations Policy
Aims of the HHR Allocations Policy include
- provision of housing to those in greatest need
- to help prevent and deal with homelessness
- to give applicants a range of choices of housing
Information and advice on wider housing options is available from each partner landlord and on this web-site.
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A single register improves use of the available social housing stock. With a single register of applicants, there is greater scope for making successful 'matches' of applicants for housing with properties that are vacant. A single register can help make allocation of social housing more efficient and more effective.
Operating a shared register reduces duplication of work by staff in different organisations. Given that the administration cost of managing the application, assessment and allocation processes is met from rental income, social landlords have a responsibility to tenants to ensure efficiency.
A single register of people actively seeking housing within a given area - both as first-time applicants and tenants seeking to transfer - provides a more accurate estimate of housing need than a number of different registers. A single housing register can also help inform strategic planning within the Highland housing market area ensuring that housing need and demand is consistently assessed for investment purposes under duties introduced in the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001.
Highland Housing Register partners are committed to the recognised benefits of a common housing register for Highland through a Partnership Agreement.
Further information on Common Housing Registers is available from www.shbvn.org
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Anyone aged 16 years or over can apply for a house from any of the partner landlords. You can choose to apply for as many of the landlords as you like. You have the right for your application to be considered by any or all the landlords.
You can make an application by contacting any of the partner landlords from the contact details on this site, and requesting an application form, or you can download the application form under current documents on this page or call in to a local office to collect an application. You can request assistance with the completion of an application form. If you download the application form from this page, we would advise you to also download the Housing Application Guide. We would also ask you to assist us by downloading, completing and returning the Equal Opportunities Monitoring Form.
Applications can be returned to any of the partner landlords.
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Once you have returned your application form it will be checked to make sure that we have all the information we need. We will confirm that we have received your application. We may contact you if we require any further information, and in certain circumstances we may need to contact your previous landlord for reference, or other professionals for verification of your circumstances.
Once we have all the information, we can assess your housing needs. The HHR enables all applications to be assessed using a single policy which awards points for different categories of housing need. This process ensures that all applications are assessed consistently against the same measures of housing need. Full details of the categories of housing need is contained in Part B of the HHR Allocations Policy - Assessing your housing need and awarding points.
Your application is then held on the HHR with details of your circumstances and the level of points assessed for these circumstances. It is important that you continue to keep us informed of any changes in your circumstances in order that the HHR can continue to accurately reflect your housing need.
When your application has been assessed in this way we will write to you to confirm what your points total is.
Please note that if you change address, you must complete and submit a new HHR Application Form. This is because the suitability, or otherwise, of your current accommodation for your housing needs determines the level of points awarded to your application under certain of the categories in our Allocations Policy.
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The HHR enables all partner landlords to produce shortlists of applicants for any vacant stock. As applications are prioritised using the categories of housing need in the HHR Allocations Policy, shortlists identify applicants with greatest need for available stock of any size in any location across Highland, at the time of any particular vacancy. As HHR is an open list and anyone has the right to apply at any time, the shortlists can change from day to day to reflect any new applications received. Your position on the list can therefore change as new applications are received and as other applicants are housed.
Based on the points awarded under the Allocations Policy, houses are allocated to applicants with greatest need for vacancies of an eligible size and type in their preferred location.
It is possible for applicants with low levels of housing need not to be offered housing through the HHR route, particularly where they are seeking housing in areas where there is either high demand for housing or limited availability of vacant houses. Staff in any of the partner offices can provide you with information and advice about the supply and turnover of houses in their areas to assist you in the choices you make in your application, or in terms of other housing options, including renting privately or low cost home ownership.
Further information is also available on the affordable housing and the guide to housing options pages.
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Offers of housing will depend on your level of housing need, as well as on the availability of the size and type of housing you need in the areas you have expressed a preference for. Staff from any of the partner landlord offices can give you advice on historical and/or anticipated availability of stock in their ownership in different areas. This can help inform the choice of areas you make on your application.
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When your application is shortlisted as being in greatest need for one of the partner landlord's vacant properties, you will be contacted by letter to make you an offer. The offer letter will contain the property details, information about how you can arrange to view it, and how long you have to accept or refuse the offer. If you accept the offer rent will be charged from the date the tenancy starts, which is generally as soon as it is available for occupation.
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If you refuse a reasonable offer of housing made by one of the HHR partners (that is one which appears to meet your needs and is in one of your selected areas) then we will contact you to make sure that the information in your application is correct, and give you advice about your housing options. If you refuse a second reasonable offer we will suspend your application for 6 months.
If your application has been awarded points because The Highland Council has assessed that you are homeless or threatened with homelessness you will be eligible to receive 1 offer, which will be reasonable taking account of your housing needs, advice in the Scottish Government's Code of Guidance on Homelessness, and availability of housing in the area you have selected. The offer may not necessarily be in the area you have selected where there is an evidenced shortage of housing in that area. In these circumstances, when you refuse 1 reasonable offer The Highland Council may consider that it has discharged its duty to you in terms of homelessness legislation by making this property available to you. You would have a right of appeal.
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The Highland Council has a legal duty to help homeless people and those threatened with homelessness. Other HHR partners do not have this legal duty and while they are committed to supporting The Highland Council in meeting its homelessness duties by means of the HHR, they do not have powers to assess homelessness or award points for this aspect of housing need.
For this reason, if you are homeless, or threatened with homelessness, you must contact one of The Highland Council's Housing & Property Service Offices and arrange an appointment with an Accommodation Officer. Contact details for Housing & Property Service Offices across Highland are available here.
Additionally, further advice and information about homelessness, including Frequently Asked Questions, can be obtained from the Homelessness page.
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Because the HHR is a shared system you can contact any of the partner offices in connection with your application. However, we recognise you may wish to deal consistently with staff in the office which is holding your application, which may be your existing landlord if you are already a tenant of an HHR landlord, or with particular staff that are more fully aware of your circumstances, or with an office that is more accessible to you. The complete list of contact details for HHR partners is available.
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If you have a complaint about how your application has been managed, then you have a right to complain. You should contact the office holding your application for details of the complaints procedure. Your complaint will be investigated and you will receive a formal written response to your complaint.
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To request any of this information in an alternative format, for example, LARGE PRINT, Braille, computer disc, audio tape, or alternative languages, please contact The Highland Council's Housing & Property Service, tel 01463 702863. or by using our contact form.
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