FAQ

What should I do before I apply?

Housing Options Plan

Before you begin your application process you should complete a Housing Options Plan. The Housing Options Plan will provide you with housing options, including advice on how to improve your current housing situation.

Explore all housing options

Use the Housing Options Plan to explore all available housing options such as Private Rent, Mid Market Rent, Buying a home. If you are a Fife Housing Partner tenant most Fife Housing Register partner landlords are now part of our Home Swap service. If you live in Fife and want to move in Fife applying for Home Swap may help you find a home that is better suited to your needs.

Common Assessment of Need/Points Award

All of the Fife Housing Register partners have agreed a common assessment of need for assessing applications. This brings together the best parts of policy and practice within each of the partner organisations to make it simpler for applicants to understand and for staff to work with.

Through this, Fife Housing Register partners are committed to:

Open and simpler access to housing for those who need to live in Fife
The principle of equal opportunities
Transparency and accountability in all aspects of the process
The best use of housing to meet local needs and priorities
Best value and making best use of resources

The Common Assessment of Need considers applicants who are:

Homeless or at risk of becoming homeless
Living in unfit housing
Living in insecure housing
Living in overcrowding conditions
Victims of violence or harassment
Having difficulties with their present home due to illness or disability
Needing to move for social or employment reasons
In homes that are too big for them
Needing to move from other parts of the country as part of Home Swap/Mutual Exchange

The CAON has been set out to make sure:

Fife Housing register partners keep within the law
Fife Housing register partners follow best practice
Applicants can choose who they want to be housed by
Applicants can have their housing needs considered thoroughly and preferences recorded
The assessment process is comprehensive and fair
The assessment of housing needs is linked to an assessment of other needs
Partners can meet individual applicants’ priorities

All applications are considered in the same way. Your application is awarded points and a category in line with your housing need and based on the information in your application form.

Although there is only one application form and one assessment, each landlord has their own allocation policy. Each partner’s allocation policy is available on their individual website.

Urgent Housing Needs	Points	Social and Medical Needs	Points
Statutory Homelessness	100	Illness and disability	20/40/60*

Sever Harassment	100	Retirement Housing	15/30/50*

Closure order/ Closure for re-development	100	Special Needs Accommodation	20/60*

Poor Housing Circumstances	Points
Lacking Amenities	12	Harassment	10/30

Unsafe Water Supply/ Inadequate Drainage/Rising & Penetrating Damp	12	Independent Living	60

No Central Heating	5	Social/Personal Needs	10/25/40

		Care Arrangements:
Too few rooms- Overcrowding (per room short - max 75 points)	25	Respite care	10
		Access to Children (when room required)	20
Severe Overcrowding (2+ overcrowding factors)	10 extra	Foster Care	20

Too many rooms - Under– Occupation in private sector Under- Occupation in Local authority or Housing association	5 25	Children’s Educational Needs	5/20
		*awarded after medical assessment
Sharing Facilities	6
		Management Needs	Points
Children’s Social Needs (garden/playspace)	10/20	Awarded by Housing Managers for best use of stock	120

Lack of Security	Points	Lack of Security	Points
Tenancy Time Limited but (no Notice to quit/Notice to leave)	5	Non Householder (single people or families living care of)
		Not sharing a bedroom	25
Notice to Quit/Notice to Leave:
Tied Accommodation	75	Sharing a bedroom with a sibling	25

Short Assured Accommodation	75	Sharing a bedroom with someone other than a sibling	25

HM Forces Discharge	75	No bedroom	25

Tenants without a Lease	25	No fixed abode	25

Owner Occupation Process of Re-possession/Advised to Sell	25	Families with children overcrowded	25 extra

Medical Need/Adaptations

Not every housing need requires you to move home. There options for you to remain in your tenancy with help from the Adaptations Team. We do have information for the Adaptations team should you need to contact them.

Should you apply for housing and have a medical need this will be considered as part of the assessment process via completing a Housing Functional Needs Assessment Form.

How do I make my Housing Application?

Once you have completed your Housing Options Plan, you can make your housing application via Fife Council's Website. This housing application will then be submitted directly to the Fife Housing Register Team for Assessment.

Should you require assistance in completing a Housing Options Plan / FHR Application form you can call Fife Council's Housing information and advice line on 03451 55 00 33 and request an appointment at your nearest Fife Council Customer Service Centre. A Customer Service Advisor will be able to assist you in applying.

Alternatively, you can visit any of our FHR Partner Officers.

If you feel you cannot tell us everything we need to know to assess your application You can call 03451 55 00 33 and depending on what it is you need to tell us, we can either update your information or arrange for you to meet someone to go over this in more detail.

If you have lived outside the UK within the last two years you will be asked to complete a Habitual Residence Test form and provide additional information and proofs. The test is used to establish if you and your household members are habitually resident in the UK and have a right to reside in the UK.

You will be asked to provide proof such as your current UK passport, Notification of benefits, tax notifications. We use this information to assess if Fife Council can be added as a landlord option and if you are eligible to receive homelessness assistance, if relevant.

If you are not from the UK, You will be asked to provide additional information to support your application. You will be advised of the information we require but depending on your circumstances it could include:

5 year address history
Bank statements, proof of jobs applied for, proof of benefit, payslips
Birth certificates, for you and household members
Biometric residence permit
Visa
Home officer paperwork

We need this information to establish if you can have Fife Council added as a landlord option and if you are eligible to receive homelessness assistance, if relevant.

What happens after I make my application/How long will I wait for an offer of housing?

Once you have completed your application form your application will be assessed by the FHR Team. If additional information is needed for your application to be fully assessed someone will be in touch with you.

We aim to assess your form within 20 days if all the supporting information is provided.

Once your application has been processed you will receive a letter and an application reference number. Check this carefully to make sure all the details are correct. If you need to give us more information or you feel it has not been assessed correctly, please call 03451 55 00 33 or visit one of our partner offices and we will check it for you.

There is no set time or anticipated wait time for receiving an offer of housing. This will be dependant on your application circumstances, property availability and other impacting factors. Should you be under consideration for an offer of housing, an Allocating Officer from an FHR Partner will be in touch with you directly.

Please also note, we do not accept "Notes of Interests" in empty properties. Should you see/know of a property being empty or about to become empty, please do not call to register an interest in it. Please accept that when an FHR Partner gets notified that a property is going to become vacant the allocation process begins and should you be in consideration for it an Allocating Officer will be in touch with you directly.

What if my Current Circumstances change / do my current circumstances impact my housing application?

If your circumstances change you should inform us as soon as you can either online; by calling 03451 55 00 33, visiting one of the partner organisation offices or by emailing fhr.team@fife.gov.uk and quoting your FHR Application Reference in the subject bar. Depending on the update you provide this could generate an automatic letter confirming the updated information you have provided, or it could prompt us to contact you for further information.

If you no longer wish to stay on the housing list you can click the “WITHDRAW” when signed into FifeDirect. Or you can complete a withdrawal form online or at any of the partner offices so that you can sign to confirm that you want your application withdrawn. Alternatively you can email fhr.team@fife.gov.uk and quoting your FHR Application Reference in the subject bar.

If you have rent arrears from a current or previous tenancy we will suspend your application for housing. While your application is suspended you will not be made any offers of housing. To have your suspension removed you need to set up a payment plan with the landlord and have made payments for 3 months and be willing to continue to make payments. Once you have made payments for three months you can advise FHR.team@fife.gov.uk or visit/call any Customer Service Centre or any Housing Association partner office to advise. Your current or previous landlord will be contacted to confirm that this is the case. Once this is confirmed the suspension will be lifted and your application will be Live.

If you have outstanding charges for repairs this too can suspend your application and to have the suspension removed, similar to above a payment plan needs to be in place for 3 months before the application can be made Live again. The landlord will be contacted to confirm that this is the case.

How will my application be reviewed?

You will be sent a review letter regularly to prompt you to tell us if any of your circumstances have changed and to find out if you want your Fife Housing Register application to stay on the housing list.

You must reply to the review, even if your circumstances have not changed. If you do not reply this could result in your application being closed.

Online Help/Data Protection

If you have forgotten any of your signing in details in Fife Council's website, click on the options listed:

A valid email address is needed to complete a Fife Housing Register application form online.

There are a number of free email account providers and, in most cases, a new email account can be created in a few minutes. You can search the internet for email account providers.

If you do not want to have an email address, you can still apply for housing using a paper application form.

The information provided by you when completing the Fife Housing Register application form will be used by the Fife Housing Register Partnership in order to process your application.

It will be shared with Fife Housing Register partners and information will be obtained from previous landlords, mortgage lenders and any other relevant contacts that you have provided in your application form to help with the assessment.

Further information on how your information is used and why can be found here. The Council’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted at dataprotection@fife.gov.uk.

What happens if I was to be allocated a property?

The allocation process has been completed you will receive a Firm Offer letter advising you of the property you have been offered. The FHR Partner issuing you with the offer of housing should be in touch to arrange next steps; accompanied viewing, sign up appointment etc.

Once you have accepted an offer of housing, your application will be withdrawn.

Your landlord will be able to offer you a range of support to help you settle into your tenancy and information on this can be found here.

You can also apply for help from the likes of Scottish Welfare Fund and Big House Project Fife.

In this section

Service Update

November 2023 - Customer Survey

We want to hear from you! Fife Housing Register are running a customer survey from November 2023 to January 2024. We want to hear from applicants who have either completed their housing journey with us or are currently on our waiting list. Your answers could help us improve our service in the future. Please see the below link to the survey;

FHR SURVEY

June 2023 - The Fife Housing Register Team have moved base from New City House, Dunfermline to Brunton House, Cowdenbeath. Any Post being sent to the FHR Team should be sent to the following;

Fife Housing Register Team, Cowdenbeath Customer Service Centre, Brunton House, High Street, Cowdenbeath, KY4 9QU.

Alternatively you can;-

Call 03451 55 00 33
Or email FHR.Team@Fife.gov.uk