For bigger businesses or multiple branches, having all areas ticked by default when you add an applicant can in some cases be a nuisance. To overcome this, a Super User can change the default areas for each branch.
Go to Configure>Business Configuration>Areas>Default Areas.
This shows the District (middle) tier from your areas configuration.
The effect of this is shown in the tree view when adding an applicant as below:
All areas are ticked as default with the excpetion of the Radstock and Salisbury Office areas.