Housing Association - Affordability Test/ Income Assessment

[3Hearts1Beat]

Hello,

Myself and my family live in social rented accommodation and we are registered on our Housing bidding scheme, which allows for tenants to bid on suitable accommodation in accordance to their housing needs.

We’ve recently placed bids with a Housing Association on three flats, that are all located within a new build development however the condition of the properties if successful when the bidding cycle closes is that the offer is subject to pre tenancy and income assessment. Additionally the Housing Association will be asking for landlord references for anyone offered the property.

I was wondering if anyone has ever had to complete an income assessment upon offer of a property and if so, what does it consist of?

Thank you for taking the time to read.

Have only had to do this for buying shared ownership, they wanted to know income from employment, savings and debts. Bit surprised you would have to do this for social housing. Surely they should accept universal credit for the rent if necessary? Is the rent high or is the service charge covering items which would not be covered by benefits? Its a blessing to be able to fall back on benefits if you need to, as I did unexpectedly for the rent on my shared ownership flat.

@starpatch thank you for your response, the rent works out to £850.00 monthly inclusive of service charges and they are accepting individuals whom are in receipt of benefits.

Hi, I do these affordability checks for my job as a housing officer.
Where I work we do a benefit check (similar to entitled 2 website one which you could do yourself in advance if you want to see the sort of questions asked)
Followed by an expenditure questionnaire.

I would recommend you to make a list of all current benefits/wage amounts and outgoings in advance as it will make the process much quicker.

Are there specific thing you'd like to know?

@ThreeFeetTall Thank you so for your response.

Is there a certain criteria’s that they look at or is it solely based on the household income?

Also if for example a tenant didn’t meet the criteria or it was felt by the Housing Officer that they wouldn’t be able to afford the property, does the offer of the property go to the next person on the list?

Once the bidding cycle for the property has ended and you finally get the list of nominated tenants for the property, do you actually see the list in order that it appeared or does it appear in a mixed format and so the position that the tenant may have been in at the end of the cycle wouldn’t really have mattered?

There have always been criteria you need to meet such as being the right size household for the property etc but in terms of income we are just looking for the ability to pay the rent. If paying from your own income we look for rent being less than 40% of income. If claiming benefits we'd look to see how much benefits would pay and if you could meet the shortfall (if any).
Is that what you meant?

In terms of whether we see all the nominations, I'm not sure as I don't deal with that directly and it varies by council. but even if we did see the whole list we'd still just go to the person at the top of the list. What makes you ask that question?

@ThreeFeetTall Oh I see, yes that’s what I meant, thank you again for your response. With regards to the criteria, where ensuring that the right sized household is suitable for the property, what I find strange is that my family’s composition is 3/5, which means that we’re a family of 5 in need of a 3 bedroom property yet there’s been times, when the system has allowed for us to bid on 3 bedroom properties suitable for a family of 4 or even a 2 bedroom property suitable for a family of 4, it’s so confusing at times honestly.

In terms of whether you get to view all the nominations, reason I’m asking is because we were high up the list and then all of a sudden we dropped quite significantly from a high position to a low position and in all honesty it just made us lose hope. Someone told us however that anything could happen as many people tend to refuse offers of suitable properties for many reasons. So guess it’s just a waiting game and luck at this rate, especially with the housing crisis being so bad.

I have just been accepted for a three bedroom house OP. I am currently in a two bed with the same HA.
I was number 6 on the list and thought I had no chance but got the call a week later so try not to lose hope! I know it's hard though because I had started to give up.

They said that someone would come round to do a financial eligibility check and I got all my bills and bank statements ready and she didn't even look at them. She just asked a few vague questions about how much I spent on clothes and hair cuts and things a month and that was it. It took about 5 or 10 minutes.
I think they just wanted to check that nothing had changed since I applied.

Good luck! I hope you get lucky soon!

I actually completed this last year and it was done through one of the leading finance websites. It was just like a quick questionnaire that asked my income and outgoings and let me know what I have left at the end of every month. It’s just so that you afford the property. The reference was just landlords reference

@Italianmamami thank you for your response, most appreciated.

@RightOnTheEdge thank you for your response, really appreciate it. Honestly it really is hard not to lose hope especially when you’ve been bidding for so long and it just seems as though it’s never going to happen.

Can I ask where you’re based? We’re in London and it has become so overpopulated down here and I just can’t help but think that this too may very well be a contributing factor as to why things are moving so slow in respect of housing. We’re currently sitting in position numbers 9, 8 and 4 for the three bedroom properties we’ve placed bids on. Still cannot believe you was number 6 and got contacted, that’s brilliant to hear, it really does go to show that anything can happen and so it gives us a bit of hope. Congratulations to you!

@3Hearts1Beat I am based in North Yorkshire.
Ibreally feel for you, I know exactly how you feel. Bidding was every Thursday for me and I used to look the second I woke up and it was very rare that any 3 beds came up in my area. In the last year and a half only two 3 beds were up to bid on before the one I finally got. I guess not many people move away from here!
It got soul destroying. I'd go to work feeling really down every week.

I don't drive and the house is pretty far out of town so it's going to be a long walk to school and work but dd and ds are so excited to be getting their own rooms they are absolutely sick of each other! Maybe that's what put other people in front of me off?

They said I had to accept it straight away or they'd pass it to someone else! So I had to say yes but I haven't even seen a photo of the house, there were none on the bidding site and it was May when I got the call and the HA still haven't got the keys for the house yet. So I'm sat surrounded by my stuff in boxes ready to move to a house that I have no idea what it even looks like! It's a crazy situation really but I'm so grateful and relieved.
I really hope you get lucky soon! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!🤞🤞

Hi could you tell me how thi went please? I'm in a similar position x