Check the journeys. Keep the evidence.
Can the children still walk to school? Can the family reach their GP, and get to work on time? A placement check names the places a household relies on, calculates the journey to each one from the homes you're considering, and keeps a sealed, dated record of what was checked.
Where a council places a household out of area, it should explain the decision, and evidence it.
A real placement check on an example case in Harrow, 7 November 2026. Other addresses are blurred.
The household's own places, and the journey to each.
Your officer names the places and sets the limits. Viiyoo calculates the journeys from each home and shows which homes are within every limit, and which are over one.
- The household's own places. A particular school, GP practice, hospital, station or park, found by name, or any postcode: a workplace, a relative, childcare. Each carries your officer's own label and the location factor of the 2012 Suitability Order it is considered under.
- A travel limit on each place. On foot, by bike, by car or by public transport, leaving at a set time or arriving by one. A Must rules a home out; a Prefer is shown, and never does.
- Journey times, calculated. The nearest homes are calculated one by one on weekday timetables for National Rail, the Underground, DLR, trams and buses across Great Britain, with each ride, change, walk and wait. A home is marked within or over a limit only when a calculated journey confirms it; the rest are flagged to check. Driving assumes free-flowing roads.
- Every home accounted for. The home offered, your own shortlist, or homes advertised to rent or for sale, inside your area and outside it: each within every Must, or over one, and which.
Each journey with its rides, changes, walking and waiting, from the home to each of the household's places.
A sealed, dated location record.
- Set out under the location factors. The household's places and limits, the home considered and its journeys, the search as it was run and every home it checked, under the location factors of the 2012 Suitability Order.
- In your officer's own words. Your officer's consideration under each factor, and their conclusion, printed as written.
- Versioned, fingerprinted, kept. Each record is versioned and says what changed since the last. It carries a SHA-256 fingerprint, so a copy can be checked as unaltered, and is kept for six years.
- Whose decision it is. Viiyoo states the journeys. Whether accommodation is suitable stays the council's judgement.
From the sample record: the home considered, and its journeys against each limit.
What to expect, and what not to.
Does a placement check say a home is suitable?
No. It states the journeys from each home to the places the household relies on, the homes checked on the day and your officer's own consideration. Whether accommodation is suitable is the council's judgement, made by your officer, and the record says so.
How are the journeys worked out?
The nearest homes are calculated one by one on weekday timetables for National Rail, the Underground, DLR, trams and buses across Great Britain, with each ride, change, walk and wait. A home is marked within or over a limit only when a calculated journey confirms it; the rest are flagged to check. Driving assumes free-flowing roads.
Which homes can be checked?
The home offered, your own shortlist, or homes advertised to rent or for sale, inside your area and outside it. Each comes back within every Must, or over one, and which.
Does Viiyoo give advice?
No. Viiyoo provides analysis and evidence, not advice. Your officers make and release every decision.
How do we start?
With an example case. We're starting with example cases: we'll run one for your team, on homes in your own area, so you see the check and its record before deciding. Viiyoo's plans are monthly: see the plans.
See it on an example case.
We're starting with example cases. Tell us the area and we'll run one for your team, on homes there.