SCHEDULE 3AMENDMENT OF THE HOUSING GRANTS, CONSTRUCTION AND REGENERATION ACT 1996

6.  After section 22 insert the following section—

Certificates required in case of occupier’s application

22A.(1) A local housing authority shall not entertain an occupier’s application for a grant unless it is accompanied by an occupier’s certificate.

(2) An “occupier’s certificate”, for the purposes of an application for a grant, certifies—

(a)that the application is an occupier’s application, and

(b)that the applicant intends that he (if he is the disabled occupant) or the disabled occupant will live in the qualifying houseboat or qualifying park home (as the case may be) as his only or main residence throughout the grant condition period or for such shorter period as his health and other relevant circumstances permit.

(3) Except where the authority consider it unreasonable in the circumstances to require such a certificate, they shall not entertain an occupier’s application for a grant unless it is also accompanied by a consent certificate from each person (other than the applicant) who at the time of the application—

(a)is entitled to possession of the premises at which the qualifying houseboat is moored or, as the case may be, the pitch on which the qualifying park home is stationed; or

(b)is entitled to dispose of the qualifying houseboat or, as the case may be, the qualifying park home.

(4) A “consent certificate”, for the purposes of subsection (3), certifies that the person by whom the certificate is given consents to the carrying out of the relevant works..