These procedures and guidelines concern the situation where, under Part 7 of the Housing Act 1996 , a local housing authority consider that the conditions for referral of the case to another local housing authority are met and notifies the other authority of its opinion.
Referrals are discretionary only. Housing authorities are not required to make inquiries as to whether, for example, an applicant has a local connection with another district and, where they decide to do so, there is no requirement to refer applicants to another authority if the conditions for referral are met. Authorities may have a policy about how they may exercise their discretion. However, they cannot decide in advance that a referral will be made in all cases where an applicant may, for example, have a local connection with another district.
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