You are homeless if you have no accommodation that you are legally entitled to live in. The accommodation needs to be available for you to live in, and it must be reasonable for you to carry on living in it.

‘You’ not only means you - it includes you and anyone else who normally lives with you. It also includes people who may reasonably be expected to live with you. This means people who aren’t living with you right now but would be if they could. For example, your family coming to live with you from abroad. The council decides if it is reasonable to expect other people who aren’t living with you at the time you ask the council for help, to be housed with you.

For example, you are classed as homeless if:

• you are sleeping on a friend or family member’s sofa,
• you are sleeping rough on the streets or staying out all night for example on night buses,
• you have a home but it is unreasonable for you to occupy it, for example, because it is in a very poor state of repair or because it is so overcrowded,
• you are at risk of violence or domestic abuse (at your home if you go back to it).

As soon as you are homeless you need to contact your local council’s housing department.  If the council doesn’t know about you or your housing problems it has no duty to help you. It is only by contacting the council that you can start getting some help.

You can apply to any council for help but it may make sense to apply to your local council. This is because if the council you apply to decides, later on, that you have a stronger connection to another area they might try to refer you to the council there. For more on this see the section called 'Local connection' in Stage 1- The duty to provide you with accommodation straight away.

You might have already received help from the council when you were threatened with homelessness but you have still ended up homeless. If you are already in touch with the council you can skip this bit and go to Stage 1 - The duty to provide you with accommodation straight away.

It may be that someone who is already helping you, such as a social worker or probation officer, will tell the local council about your housing problem. They can only do this if you give them your permission.  This is called a referral.

If you agree to someone else making a referral for you it is important you check it contains everything the council needs to know about your situation. Ask to see the paperwork to be sure and get a copy for your own record. The council cannot make an accurate decision about your case without all the information that shows you are vulnerable. We explain more about this in the section called Stage 1- The duty to provide you with accommodation straight away.

Unless you agree to someone making a referral for you, you will need to call and then go and see the council yourself as soon as you can.

To find your council’s housing department contact and address details go to Shelter.

When you go to your local council housing department for help, staff there must help you if they believe that, based on what you tell them, you may be homeless. Everyone has the right to make an application for help with a housing problem. You might not get help because of your immigration status. We talk more about this in the section called Stage 2 - The eligibility assessment. 

First the housing officer will ask you questions to work out if your immigration status entitles you to help with housing. This is often called ‘eligibility’ or being ‘eligible’.

Local council housing departments are very busy places so if you decide to go without making an appointment first it is very important to get there early in the day. You may have to wait to be seen for several hours or more. If you can ask someone to go with you to give you some moral support this would be a good idea.

Make sure you take as much evidence of your situation as you can find. The housing officer will need as much information as possible to make a decision about what type of help the council must give you.

The Council must provide you with accommodation straight away if they think you:

• may be homeless,
• may be eligible for help (see Stage 2), and
• may be in priority need. 

They cannot delay this for any reason. It is very important that you persuade them to give you this if you can. The key thing you need to do is to show you are in priority need. If you are given somewhere to stay by the council at this early stage it is likely they will take their duty to help you (called the Relief duty, see Stage 3) much more seriously.

The next decision the housing officer needs to make is whether or not you are eligible for help with housing. This is to do with your immigration status.

If you have already been assessed by the council when you were threatened with homelessness and your immigration status has not changed you can skip this bit and go straight the next section Stage 3 - the help the council has to give you - the Relief duty.

You must have the right to stay in the UK if you want to get help with housing.  Usually you will be entitled to housing assistance if you are: 

• a British or Irish citizen living in the UK,
• an EU or EEA citizen with settled or pre-settled status,
• from outside the EU but allowed to claim benefits.  

The situation for EU citizens has changed because of Brexit so do look at the Shelter website and their section on EU citizens for more information, if you are in this situation.

Other people from abroad may be eligible for help with housing so do check Shelter’s information on immigration and residence restrictions if you don’t fit into one other groups in the list above.

If you are told you are not eligible because of your immigration status you might want to get more help and advice to see if this decision is correct. The council must give you the decision in writing. If you aren’t given this decision in writing make sure you ask for it.

In reality it is unlikely you will be given this letter on the day you see a housing officer. You will probably have to ask for it to be posted to an address where you can collect it or emailed to an email address you can access. Or you can ask when you can go back and collect it yourself.

How to get help and advice about your eligibility

You might be entitled to free legal advice about your housing problem. Go to the GOV.UK website to work out if you are.

You will need this information to go through the assessment:

• Your income - wages, pension, maintenance and benefits.
• Your outgoings - rent or mortgage, maintenance, childcare costs, monthly contribution order payments (if you have to pay towards any criminal legal aid costs).

If it looks like you might be entitled to free legal advice you can then call the Civil Legal Advice helpline. Or they can call you back. The contact details to do this appear on the website after you have put in your information about your financial situation. Call charges apply when you ring CLA but you can get them to call you for free.

You can call Shelter for telephone advice about your housing problem for free.

You can also find a solicitor who does housing law or a housing adviser on GOV.UK.

If you think the decision the council makes is wrong, ask for it to be looked at again. For more information on this see our guide How to challenge the decision about your homelessness application.

If the council decides correctly that you are not eligible for help because of your immigration status the housing department doesn’t have any duty to help you. If you find yourself in this situation all the council has to do is give you very basic general information on how to avoid becoming homeless and how to find a new home. The housing department doesn’t have to help you find somewhere to live.

You will need to go to the Home Office for help or your social worker if you have one. Unfortunately, the rest of this guide will not be useful to you. Instead of reading on you should take a look at Praxis, Refugee Action and the Refugee Council websites.

If you are eligible for help with housing then you go to the next stage where the council owes you what is called the ‘Relief duty’. We will talk about what this is next. 

If the housing officer decides that you are eligible for help with housing and that you are homeless then the council owes you the ‘Relief duty’. This means that the council must help you find suitable accommodation. It does not mean that the council has to actually house you. At this point you may have been housed in emergency or temporary accommodation by the council or you may still be in the same situation you were when you first contacted the council for help.

The law sees suitable accommodation as a place to stay that meets your needs and that you would be able to live in for least 6 months.

A housing officer has to carry out an assessment and then work out what steps need to be taken by you and by the council, to help you. The steps are then written down in your Personalised Housing Plan. For more on this see the section called Your Personalised Housing Plan.  

You can ask any council for help if you are homeless. That council must accept your application. They are not allowed to send you away. If they think you do not have a local connection to the area, and you do have one with another council, they may well refer you to the other council and ask them to help you instead. But, they can only do this if neither you nor someone you can be reasonably expected to live with, will be at risk of domestic abuse or other violence in that area. If the council you ask for help from refers you to another council you can dispute it if you don’t agree.

The council must take into account your personal needs and circumstances when helping you to find accommodation. This might mean that, if you agree, your housing officer works with your support worker or social worker, if you have one.

The Relief duty lasts for up to 56 days (8 weeks) from the date the council decides you are entitled to help.  That means the council has to help you for 56 days (8 weeks) to find somewhere to live but, if they have not already provided you with somewhere to stay in Stage 1, they don’t have to provide you with actual housing. If you find somewhere to live before the 8 weeks are up the council’s duty to help you ends then.  

If you are still homeless when the 56 days (8 weeks) comes to an end you might actually get housed by the council. This is only if you meet certain conditions. We talk about this more in the section called What happens when the Relief duty comes to an end.

What has to happen during these 56 days (8 weeks) is set out in your Personalised Housing Plan. 

You may already have a Personalised Housing Plan. If you do you can skip this bit and go down this section to the heading 'How to get your Plan updated'.

Your assessment to work out what needs to happen next can take around 1 - 2 hours and will usually be a face to face meeting at the housing office. Or, occasionally it might take place over the phone, if for example you are in hospital.

You will be asked about:

• Yourself and your household. This includes your partner, your children, anyone else who lives with you, and anyone who may reasonably be expected to live with you.
• What has happened for you to be where you are, needing help?
• Your housing needs - for example, how many children you care for or do you need it to be accessible for a wheelchair user?
• What support you think you need to find somewhere new to live. This includes things like help completing benefit applications, or language support. 

You need to prepare for your assessment so that you get the best Personalised Housing Plan for your needs.

Accommodation that the council offers you, or that you find with help from the council, must be suitable for you and all the members of your household. Your household is made up of:

• people who usually live with you, or
• people who may reasonably be expected to live with you.

What ‘suitable’ means depends on how long you have to stay there. If it is going to be somewhere you stay for one or two nights the standard is low. If it is for a week or two it is still not very high. If it is for much longer, the standard should be the same as long term accommodation. What is suitable depends also on your needs and situation. The council must take into account:

• space,
• location,
• how affordable it is for you,
• the state of repair and safety standards,
• any medical or physical needs you or members of your household have. 

For example, somewhere that is overcrowded or does not have proper fire safety arrangements in place is not likely to be suitable.

The location must be suitable for you - for example for your children’s schools, your work.

If you refuse an offer of accommodation, the council may no longer have a duty to help you at all. So, it is important to think very carefully before refusing an offer – try to get advice from a housing solicitor or ring Shelter for free advice before doing so. It is almost always better to accept an offer to start with whether or not you think it is suitable. You can challenge its suitability after you accept it and hopefully get somewhere better. You can get more help on this in our guide called How to challenge the decision about your homelessness application.

The council can decide that they no longer have a duty to help you if you deliberately and unreasonably refuse to cooperate with the steps set out in your Personalised Housing Plan.

To decide if you are deliberately and unreasonably refusing to cooperate the council must:

• look at the Personalised Housing Plan again and check that the steps are reasonable,
• check that you understand the steps in the plan,
• check that you are not struggling to cooperate because of a mental health or communication condition,
• check that any refusal to cooperate is actually deliberate and unreasonable given your situation. For example, if you missed house viewings because you had to go to a Job Centre Plus appointment the council would not see this as unreasonable. 

The council has to give you a warning notice to remind you of what you need to do. If you still don’t do it the council is allowed to end its duty to help you with your housing problem (the Relief duty).

If you are in priority need and not intentionally homeless, it will still owe you a duty to find you suitable accommodation which is likely to be a 6 month assured shorthold tenancy. You can challenge this decision – see our guide How to challenge the decision about your homelessness application.

So, it is really important to do the things agreed in your Personalised Housing Plan. 

You might find that, after the Relief duty comes to an end, 56 days (8 weeks) after you applied to the council about your housing problem, you still haven’t got somewhere to live.

To actually get housed by the council (sometimes called the ‘full duty’ or the 'main duty') at the end of the 56 days you need:

• to be assessed as homeless,
• to not have made yourself intentionally homeless,
• to be in priority need (for a reminder on this go to Stage 1). 

If you do not have a local connection, the council may pass the duty to house you to another council where you do have a local connection.

The accommodation provided will be temporary accommodation until you receive a final offer, either of social housing or of private rented accommodation with a tenancy of at least 12 months. If it is a private rented tenancy, in addition to the usual requirement that it is reasonably suitable for your needs, there is a long list of further requirements that the council must check before offering it to you.

The council doesn’t always make a decision at the end of the 56 days so make sure you keep a note of the date when the 56 days are up - in the calendar or reminders in your phone - so that you or your support worker or solicitor can contact the council.

Sadly, at the end of the 56 days if you are still homeless but you are not classed as being in priority need, or are found to be intentionally homeless, the council has no duty to house you. But you should receive reasonable notice if you are in emergency or temporary accommodation - usually around 28 days. 

The council can say you can’t get help with housing or be provided with long term housing if it is your fault that you are homeless.  This can either be because of something you did or something you failed to do that means you no longer have a home.

So it is really important to show the council you did not become homeless intentionally.

The council may say you have made yourself intentionally homeless if you:  

• were evicted for rent arrears or anti - social behaviour,
• were violent to someone in your home and had to leave,
• refused an offer of accommodation and then asked for more help,
• left your home in another country to come to the UK,
• lost your home because you were in prison.    

But, the law doesn’t say these situations automatically mean you have made yourself intentionally homeless, so you can argue this with the council.

For example, you are not intentionally homeless if:

• you could not pay the rent, or mortgage, because you didn’t have enough money.
• your previous home was not suitable for you or your household, because it was too small or in poor condition.

Even if the council is providing you with emergency or temporary accommodation, if the Relief duty comes to an end and you are not in permanent accommodation, the council can refuse to help you for much longer if you have made yourself “intentionally homeless”. 

Advice on your housing rights

Start by contacting Shelter. You can call Shelter's free housing advice helpline on 0808 800 4444. The line is open 9am – 5pm Monday - Friday. Closed on bank holidays. Calls are free from UK landlines and all major UK mobile operators. There’s also a webchat service on their website.

Shelter also has advice centres across England where you can go to get personal, face-to-face advice from a housing specialist.

To find a lawyer that specialises in housing law try the GOV.UK website. To find out if you are eligible for legal aid use the GOV.UK legal aid checker.  

Civil Legal Advice is a service that provides some free legal advice over the phone, funded by the government. You need to be on a low income with either a small amount or no savings to be entitled to this help.

Citizens Advice is the national body for Citizens Advice Bureaux (CAB). Scroll down their homepage to search for a CAB near you.

You can also get help from law centres who employ solicitors and other workers who specialise in helping people with housing, employment, immigration, education, community care, and benefit problems. You can search for your nearest law centre by postcode.  

LawWorks is a charity that connects people in need of legal advice and assistance with lawyers willing to meet those needs for free. It supports 170 legal advice clinics across England and Wales. Most of these law clinics take place in the evening and provide free initial advice to people about social welfare issues, employment law, housing matters and consumer disputes. You can find a clinic near you using your postcode.

Community organisations – some local community organisations offer housing advice, and sometimes in languages other than English. If there’s a community organisation near where you live, it’s worth asking them if they can help. If you don’t know whether there is one, ask your local council if they know of any.

Debt advice

If you have debt problems the National Debtline offers you free advice over the phone. Helpline: 0808 808 4000 – open Monday – Friday 9am-8pm, and Saturday 9.30am-1pm. They also offer a webchat service.

StepChange also has a helpline: 0800 138 1111 - open Monday – Friday 8am-8pm, and Saturday 9am-2pm. Step Change also offers an online debt service - available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Domestic abuse support

Always dial 999 in an emergency.

For support or to discuss your options you can call the National Domestic Violence Helpline on 0808 2000 247 or in Wales, Live Fear Free on 0808 80 10 800.

Both help lines are for anyone who is experiencing, or has experienced domestic abuse, or for anyone who is worried about domestic abuse happening to a friend, family member or colleague. It is free, confidential and the number will not show up on a BT telephone bill.

Refuge run refuges and have lots of information on their website about how to start thinking about getting help.

National Centre for Domestic Violence provides a free, fast emergency injunction service to survivors of domestic violence regardless of their financial circumstances, race, gender or sexual orientation. Call: 0800 970 2070. Or, you can text 'NCDV' to 60777 and they will call you back.

Galop runs a national helpline for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people experiencing domestic abuse. You can contact them on 0800 999 5428.

You can find more information and support from:

• Women's aid
• Welsh Women's aid
• Surviving Economic Abuse

If you are a man and experiencing domestic violence or abuse you can contact the Men's advice line on 0808 801 0327. Open Monday - Friday, 10am - 5pm. If your first language isn't English, they can arrange access to a telephone interpreter. You can also email them at: [email protected] or go to their website for their Web chat service.

If you are worried about your own behaviour towards your current or ex-partner, or are you concerned for someone you know who is being abusive, help is available to stop this at Respect Phoneline with non-judgemental advice and access to behaviour change programmes. Call 0808 8024040, Monday– Friday, 10am-5pm.

Domestic abuse - domestic abuse in relationships is very common. Behaviour is abusive if it includes any of the following -

• physical or sexual abuse,
• violent or threatening behaviour,
• controlling or coercive behaviour,
• economic abuse,
• psychological or emotional abuse.

The abusive person must be (or have been) in an intimate personal relationship with you or be a relative. Abuse directed towards your child or someone else you care about also counts as abuse towards you.

Full homelessness duty - this is a name sometimes used for the duty that the council has to house you if you are homeless, not intentionally homeless, in priority need and have a local connection to that area. You might also hear this duty being called the ‘main duty’.

Intentionally homeless - This means that the council decides it is your fault that you are homeless, either because of something you have done or because of something you have failed to do.

Local connection - you have a local connection to the area if you usually live there, you are employed there, you have family links there or there are other special circumstances giving you a local connection.  

Priority need - you are in priority need if you pregnant, aged 16 or 17, aged 18, 19 or 20 and a care leaver, fleeing domestic abuse, or homeless because of an emergency or classed as vulnerable.

Relief duty - this is the name given to the help you are entitled to from the council if you are homeless and you go to the council for help.  The duty to you is to help you end your homelessness not to actually house you. That duty is sometimes called the ‘Full homelessness duty’ or the 'main duty'. The Relief duty lasts for 56 days (8 weeks) and ends when you find new accommodation or it is decided that the council does not have a duty to house you under the ‘Full homelessness duty’. 

The information in this guide to England only. The law may be different if you live in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

The law is complicated. We have simplified things in this guide. Please don't rely on this guide as a complete statement of the law. We recommend you ty and get advice from the sources we have suggested.

The cases we refer to are not always real but show a typical situation. We have included them to help you think about how to deal with your own situation. 

Acknowledgements

Advicenow would like to thank David Thomas for his assistance and feedback on this guide and all who took part in the pilot.  

This guide was written by Advicenow with funding from the TDS Foundation, and updated thanks to funding from Trust for London.