Temporary accommodation storage procedure

Where the authority performs it duty by moving the applicant’s belongings to a location nominated by the applicant, the duty will end once it has been moved.

If the council are storing the applicant’s belongings, then the duty will not end until there is no longer any reason to believe the applicant cannot deal with his/her property so there is no longer any loss or damage.

Even though an authority may discharge duty to accommodate there is still an obligation to ensure that the applicant can take steps to protect his own property.

In these circumstances a duty to protect may still exist even though main duty has ended but the applicant remains homeless.

Enquiries need to be made to ensure that the applicant has made provision for the protection and storage of his own belongings long after he or she may have left temporary accommodation

If the council is satisfied after enquiries are complete there is no risk of loss or damage then a letter ending duty for protection will be sent. (S.212 5) (Appendix 2 refers).

Setting of conditions:

There is the element of what is reasonable in the circumstances and councils are not expected to store property indefinitely.

It might be that the council considers imposing conditions which include disposing of property if the applicant does not make payments towards the cost of storage for example where opportunity has been given to make payments and/or collect property.

Other conditions can include making sure the council is updated with forwarding addresses so that the applicant can be updated as regards stored property or property that has been disposed of.

Any conditions imposed should be set out in writing before assuming responsibility for protection of property and ideally the signature of the applicant should be obtained together with a record of any oral or written advice given at the time.

Councils that fail to impose any conditions before taking action to protect the belongings will be unable to rely on any conditions they subsequently impose to end the duty.