Mental capacity and housing

Your mental capacity is your ability to understand information and make decisions about your life. This includes where you live. Help is available if you need it.

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This page is part of our guide to:

Housing and mental health

I was offered accommodation whilst I was still in hospital. That assurance that I'd have somewhere to move into made a lot of difference.

Mental capacity and support with housing

Whether you have capacity can change over time. And you can have capacity for some things but not others.

For example, you might be able to make a decision about where you would like to live. But not to enter into a complicated tenancy about where you live.

If you don't have capacity to make decisions about your housing, you might be able to have an advocate. An advocate will support and represent you.

In some situations, the law says that you must be given an advocate. This type of advocate is called an Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA).

There may be housing decisions that you need a deputy or attorney to make for you, if you don't have capacity. Or you might need a Court of Protection order to make the decision on your behalf. For example, decisions about entering or leaving a tenancy.

If you don't have capacity to make decisions about where you live, and you're not free to go anywhere without permission or supervision, it might be that your liberty is being restricted or taken away from you. This is called a Deprivation of Liberty. This is against the law unless it's done under the rules of the Mental Capacity Act.

For more information, see our pages on the Mental Capacity Act. This includes information on deputies and attorneys. There's also more about Deprivation of Liberty and how to challenge it.

Mental capacity and homelessness

You cannot make a homelessness application to a local authority if you don't have capacity to make decisions.

If you're homeless, it's up to a local authority to decide if you have capacity to make a homelessness application. If it decides you don't, it should offer you a different kind of support. This is because of your care and support needs.

Someone else might be able to make a homelessness application on your behalf. For example, if you have a deputy. The Court of Protection might say that a deputy can make an application for you.

If the Court appoints you a deputy to make decisions about your housing, they can decide whether to accept an offer of accommodation for you. They can also enter into a tenancy agreement on your behalf.

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