Clients and applicants have the right to ask Housing Plus to review decisions they disagree with or think are unfair. The sorts of decisions that can be appealed are: rental rebate assessment decline of a transfer or re-housing application not eligible for housing not selected for housing allocated inappropriate property request for property improvements declined unsatisfactory complaint process.
A client or applicant can appeal a Housing Plus decision, if they believe that:
The appeal process starts when a client believes that a decision made by Housing Plus is not correct and they have not been able to resolve the issue through discussion with the office which made the decision. The aim of the appeal process is to confirm whether Housing Plus has made the right decision.
There are two levels of appeal:
Formal Internal Appeal Process Internal review by Housing Plus
Housing Plus’ general approach to Internal Appeals is:
If it appears that the outcome of the Internal Appeal will not be in the client’s favour, Housing Plus will offer a phone or face to face interview before the review is completed. This gives the client an opportunity to explain the reasons they think the decision should be changed, to understand Housing Plus’ decision making process and to provide any relevant, further information.
When reviewing the original decision, the officer will consider matters such as:
Housing Plus will inform the client of the appeal decision in writing. The outcome of the appeal will be any of the following:
Formal External Review Independent review by the Housing Appeals Committee
If a client believes the decision made by Housing Plus in the Internal Appeal is incorrect, they can ask the Housing Appeals Committee to review the decision. Clients will be given information about the Housing Appeals Committee process.
The Housing Appeals Committee is an independent agency that can review decisions of community housing providers. The Committee is informal and there is no charge to clients for their service. Information on the Housing Appeals Committee can be found at www.hac.nsw.gov.au.
After its hearing, the Housing Appeals Committee will make a recommendation to Housing Plus that:
The final decision remains with Housing Plus. However, Housing Plus gives careful consideration to all of the recommendations made by the Housing Appeals Committee.
Housing Plus will advise the client in writing of the outcome of their External Appeal.