Out-of-area placement for homeless families: your rights

A council that cannot find a suitable home nearby may offer you one somewhere else. This is an out-of-area placement. It happens more often than most people realise, to families in temporary housing and to those getting a settled offer alike.

Here is when it happens, the rules, and how to fight a placement you believe is wrong.

When do out-of-area placements happen?

They happen mostly where demand runs high and the council cannot find affordable homes locally. London boroughs account for the most. Families can land in a different part of London, another region of England, or sometimes a long way from home.

Placements happen:

• In temporary housing, while the council works through its homelessness duty
• When a council makes a final private-rented offer to end the main duty, a Private Rented Sector Offer
• When a social housing allocation lands far across the borough, or in another area

The legal framework

Under the Homelessness (Suitability of Accommodation) (England) Order 2012, and the Code of Guidance under the Housing Act 1996, councils must weigh set factors before placing families.

The key ones:

• Affordability. The home must be affordable for you, counting all household income and essential outgoings.
• Your job. A faraway placement that could wreck someone's job must be weighed.
• Your children's education. One of the biggest factors. Schooling must not be disrupted where avoidable. A child in year 10 or 11, facing GCSEs at a specific school, should never be uprooted as routine.
• Medical needs. Treatment someone needs locally counts.
• Support networks. Nearness to family or carers giving essential support matters.
• The location itself. The school run, public transport, and local services all count.

What does "suitability" mean in practice?

Councils owe you no home in your current area. But the home offered must be suitable overall, weighing the factors above. A placement forcing three hours of school travel a day is unlikely to pass. One pulling a child out of dedicated disability provision almost certainly fails.

Suitability gets judged at the offer, in practice, not just on paper. Things change after the offer? Say a child turns out to hold needs that must be met locally: raise it.

The notice requirement

Before placing a household out of area, the council must give written notice. It should set out:

• The location
• Your right to ask for a suitability review

The requirement comes from the Localism Act 2011. No notice means the placement carries a procedural flaw.

How to challenge an out-of-area placement

Believe a placement is unsuitable? You can:

1. Ask for a suitability review. A formal right under Section 202 of the Housing Act 1996, used within 21 days of hearing the decision. The council then reviews whether the home is suitable.

2. Appeal to the county court. A review that upholds the placement can be appealed on a point of law, within 21 days of the review decision.

3. Complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. For a council that broke its own rules, breached the Code of Guidance, or acted unlawfully.

Children's welfare and out-of-area placements

Councils placing families with children carry duties under the Children Act 1989. Schools must accept pupils, but disrupted education is one of the clearest grounds for a challenge.

Children settled in school locally, above all with SEN provision, an EHCP, or dedicated support, mean gathering school evidence before the review. A letter from the SENCO or class teacher on what the move would do to the child counts.

If you are already in out-of-area temporary accommodation

Already somewhere unsuitable, and told you must stay? A suitability review stays open inside the 21-day window. A closed window may still leave a fresh complaint, or a review on changed circumstances.

Speak to a housing solicitor or Citizens Advice about your own situation.

When should I contact Support for Tenants?

In out-of-area temporary housing with disrepair, damp, broken heating, structural problems? A claim against the landlord may stand, even where the landlord is a private one the council found.

Call us on 0800 030 4669. No upfront cost. You only pay if you win, and the fee comes out of the compensation, not your pocket. If you don't win, you pay nothing.

Sources

• Section 208, Housing Act 1996 (out-of-area placements) (legislation.gov.uk)
• Section 210, Housing Act 1996 (suitability of accommodation) (legislation.gov.uk)