The prevention duty is intended to help you find a solution to your housing situation. This duty continues for 56 days but can be extended, until either:
- We enable you to stay where you are living
- You find somewhere else to live
- We find you somewhere else to live, for example a private rented sector tenancy, or
- You become homeless
During the 56 days, you must complete the tasks you are set in your Personal Housing Plan, by the deadlines given. It is important that you complete all the tasks. If you don’t engage with the Council, we can end our duty to you and you may not receive any further help to prevent or relieve your homelessness.
We aim to prevent as many cases as possible from becoming homeless.
This means most households will either be assisted to remain where they are living, or helped to find a private rented tenancy. This may not be in Wealden, if it is not affordable to stay in the District and there are no reasons, such as employment that could not continue if moving further away.
If we find suitable accommodation – including a private sector tenancy – our prevention duty ends. If you refuse suitable accommodation, we will end our prevention duty. If this happens you can request a review.
What happens if prevention fails, or I am already homeless?
If you already have no accommodation, for example, you are sofa surfing, sleeping rough or all efforts to prevent homelessness during the 56 -day prevention duty have failed, we will owe you a ‘relief duty’.