You can appeal decisions by a housing provider

by Stacey Broadbent, Greater Sydney Aboriginal Tenants Service

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can appeal many of the decisions made by social housing providers.

Appeals can be made by a person already renting from a social housing provider (a tenant) or by a person applying for social housing (an applicant).

Social housing providers include the Aboriginal Housing Office, Housing NSW (Department of Housing) and community housing organisations.

There are two levels of appeal:

1. an in-house appeal – an internal review by the social housing provider
2. an appeal to the Housing Appeals Committee.

In the in-house appeal, an independent officer looks at the decision and checks that the housing provider has properly applied its policies. The officer may interview the person making the appeal. They will then offer a new decision that overturns the original decision or they will stick with the original decision.

If the tenant or applicant is unhappy with the outcome of the in-house appeal, they can appeal to the Housing Appeals Committee.

The committee is independent from social housing providers and has the power to review decisions and make recommendations to social housing providers to review their decisions.

Some of the kinds of decisions the committee can review include:

• eligibility for public or community housing
  
• eligibility for priority housing listing
  
• offers of housing
  
• eligibility for type of Rentstart assistance
  
• rent subsidy calculation or cancellation
  
• transfer, succession of tenancy or mutual exchange.
  

For Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander tenants or applicants, the committee will provide an Aboriginal member on its panel, have an informal meeting and encourage advocates and support workers to come to the meeting.

Contacts and further information

Contact your local Aboriginal Tenants Advice and Advocacy Service for more information about:

• how to make an appeal
  
• what kinds of decisions you can appeal.
  

Your local service can also help you to make an appeal if you are not sure what to do.

Contact details for the Housing Appeals Committee are:

• phone 02 9715 7955
  
• free call 1800 629 794
  
• www.hac.nsw.gov.au.