Providers should prepare for the registration process. Providers can prepare by nominating a main contact, ensuring their account details are current, attending any available briefings or workshops, and understanding the requirements that apply to their organisation, including any multi-jurisdictional obligations.
Where there is demand, Registrars may organise briefings and/or workshops to help providers understand the registration process.
Providers must nominate a contact person. The Nominated Main Contact is the person in the provider’s organisation responsible for overseeing the registration and/or compliance process.
Providers applying for registration as a community housing provider complete the process online through the Community Housing Regulatory Information System (CHRIS). Each provider has a CHRIS account that contains basic business information, including contact details for the Nominated Main Contact.
Providers operating in more than one jurisdiction only need to apply once, through their primary Registrar. Multi-jurisdictional providers must show they comply, or can comply, with the relevant policies in each housing agency jurisdiction where they operate.
Each Registrar decides who carries out registration assessments in their office. In this guide, ‘Analyst’ means the person responsible for carrying out a provider’s registration assessment. The Analyst is the provider’s main point of contact for questions about the registration process. Usually, the Analyst will contact the Nominated Main Contact at least one week before the registration process commences.
Registrars use the ETF to confirm whether an organisation is eligible to apply for registration as a community housing provider and to determine the provider’s provisional tier.
Housing providers have 14 days from the start date to complete and submit the ETF. The due date is included in the email and shown at the top of the form.
After submitting the ETF, the Nominated Main Contact receives an automated email confirming it has been received.
The ETF is usually assessed within 7 - 14 days. The ETF assessment determines whether the provider is eligible for registration and its registration category, commonly referred to as its tier.
The ETF asks providers to enter standard business information, including the organisation’s name, address, entity type, and ABN or ACN. Providers will also be asked to provide the following details:
This information is recorded and maintained on the organisation’s account page in CHRIS.
Where relevant, providers must provide details of any affiliated entities and attach supporting documents, as described in the Affiliated Entity Arrangement Guidance. This helps demonstrate how the provider is structured, governed and supported by related entities or arrangements. Information required includes:
Providers may be involved in partnership arrangements that support their operations, services or registration activities. Providers are asked to record details of the following four types of partnership:
In some cases, a partner may also be an affiliated entity and should be recorded as both where applicable.
Providers are asked to create or confirm the key contact people for their organisation. This helps ensure the registration assessment uses current contact details and that the right people can be contacted if further information is needed. Providers should enter the following contacts:
Providers should attach their constitution or equivalent document. The Analyst will use this to check whether the provider has the required winding up provision in its constitution or equivalent document, as required under section 15(2)(c) of the National Law. Providers will be ineligible for registration unless this provision is included.
Some providers may already be making changes to their constitution, or taking other action, to meet this condition of registration. Providers should clearly state in the ETF what action is being taken and when it is expected to be completed. This information may affect the assessment timetable.
For more information, refer to the Developing a winding up provision guidance.
At the ETF stage, providers seeking registration are required to provide:
· the total number of community housing assets currently owned and managed; and
· a projection of any community housing asset growth anticipated over the next two years.
Some providers seeking registration may have no current community housing assets but have a plan to operate at a particular scale. Any anticipated or projected community housing assets will be recorded at the ETF stage and used to determine the provider’s tier of registration.
At the Application for Registration (AFR) stage, providers will be required to record and maintain a list of their properties in the Community Housing Regulatory Information System (CHRIS).
For more information visit the Recording and maintaining property data page.
The scale of community housing tenancy management activities is generally classified as follows:
These definitions are deliberately presented as ranges to show that a provider’s scale is considered alongside other attributes, such as:
Providers seeking registration may initially have no current community housing assets but have a specific plan to operate at a particular scale.
When completing the ETF, providers may choose to attach supporting evidence. In some cases, supporting evidence may be mandatory.
Use the available user guides to help prepare, upload and submit evidence documents in CHRIS.
Note: User guides are available in Knowledge Articles within CHRIS and provide step-by-step instructions for key processes.
Follow these steps to submit a completed ETF:
After the ETF is successfully submitted, a confirmation email will be sent to the Nominated Main Contact. If the confirmation email is not received, the housing provider should contact the Analyst to confirm the ETF has been submitted successfully.
Access to information submitted to the Registrar
Once the ETF or application has been submitted to the Registrar, providers cannot update or amend the submitted information. This includes adding or removing supporting evidence. This helps ensure the Analyst can assess a stable version of the information and is aware of any changes that may affect the assessment.
If a provider needs to amend a submitted return, they should contact the Analyst for assistance.
The Nominated Main Contact will receive an email when the ETF assessment is complete. The email will either invite the provider to complete the application for registration in the provisional tier or advise that a decision has been made to refuse the provider’s application.
Providers who are not assessed as eligible at this stage, and have not provided sufficient evidence of their intention to comply with the eligibility requirements, will be contacted before a formal decision is made. They will be given written reasons for the determination.
Housing providers will have an opportunity to respond, typically within 14 days, before a final decision is made.
Providers who are assessed as eligible to apply are invited to complete the Application for Registration Return (the Return). During this stage providers will submit supporting evidence and complete the financial performance report (FPR).
As with the ETF, the application for registration is completed on CHRIS. Supporting documents are also submitted via the system.
The Return is structured by performance outcome. The National Regulatory Code sets out the performance requirements that registered housing providers must comply with in providing community housing under the National Law. Under each performance outcome providers are asked to enter information and attach evidence to enable the assessment of all performance requirements applicable to that outcome.
For more information see:
The assessment will focus on the provider’s capacity to comply with each of the regulatory code outcomes and requirements. The scope of the assessment is determined by a provider’s category of registration or tier. The depth of assessment will be determined by a provider’s performance against the National Regulatory Code performance outcomes and requirements.
The registration assessment involves:
Further regulatory activity is targeted only at those performance outcomes or requirements where more assurance about capacity to comply or compliance is required. Nevertheless the greatest regulatory focus and scrutiny will be on governance and financial viability outcomes, because failure in those areas has the most significant consequences.
During the assessment of the return the provider may be asked for further information where the evidence on closer examination is insufficient to determine the provider’s capacity to comply. These requests will be the minimum required to enable the assessment to be completed. They also give the provider an opportunity to respond and / or address where capacity to comply has not been demonstrated.
Information may also be collected through a site visit if this is considered to be the most efficient way to collect the information. If further documentary evidence is submitted by the provider this will be attached to the original application return as supplementary evidence under the relevant performance outcome.
The return and FPR ask for a number of key operational, financial and contextual data points to assist Registrars in the efficient assessment of some performance requirements. The data is used to calculate key performance metrics. In order to ensure regulatory activity is targeted at performance outcomes and requirements where more assurance is required targets have been included for most of these metrics.
Data submitted is used to calculate key performance metrics that are used as a starting point against which performance results can be assessed.
More information about the metrics and target values is available on the Performance Standards and evidence page.
Once the Analyst has completed the assessment their determination will be sent in draft to the housing provider. The draft determination will advise the housing provider whether it has demonstrated a capacity to comply or has not demonstrated a capacity to comply with each performance outcome and performance requirement of the National Regulatory Code.
The letter will also give a draft overall determination. Where the housing provider demonstrates a capacity to comply, the draft determination may also include observations or recommendations where the Analyst considers that improvements in performance or further action is necessary for ongoing compliance with the Code. Where recommendations are made, the letter will briefly set out an explanation.
The housing provider will be offered 14 days to respond to the draft before the process is completed and the housing provider is either registered or refused registration as a community housing provider under the National Law. At this point the provider can provide additional evidence to demonstrate it has the capacity to comply.
Where the draft determination is that the housing provider has not demonstrated the capacity to comply reasons will be given.
Housing providers with a capacity to comply are registered and their progress is assessed at their first scheduled compliance assessment.
If registration is approved the report will include the category of registration including whether the provider has been registered under a particular part of the National Register and any conditions to which the registration is subject.
All registered community housing provider are entered on a public National Register of Community Housing Providers.
If the registration is not approved the reasons will be set out in the determination letter.
Providers can request an internal review of the registration determination or may appeal the decision.
Need more information visit the Internal Review and External Appeals page.
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