Home Choice
The scheme that lets applicants on our housing register choose their new homes.
All Waiting List and Transfer Applicants in all bands of the housing register are able to use Home Choice. Please see below for information about how to use the system and who to contact if you have any queries.
Home Choice works like this
- from midnight on Thursdays we will advertise available homes on an external web site. You can access this website via the Home Choice Properties page or go directly to the Reigate and Banstead Home Choice.
- each property advert will have a picture where possible, a brief description of the area and the key features of the property
- applicants will then have until midnight on the following Wednesday to tell us if they want to be considered for a particular home
- applicants may apply for up to three homes each week
- applicants can listen to recorded information about available properties each week on 01737 276677
- there are a number of ways to apply for a vacant home:
- place bids on the Reigate and Banstead Home Choice website Reigate and Banstead Home Choice. To use the service applicants must be registered on the Council's housing register and will be required to login to before bids can be placed
- call into a Help Shop
- phone the telephone bidding line 0845 270 1908. Users must be registered on the Council's housing register and will be required to login before placing bids
- email us at housing.register@reigate-banstead.gov.uk
- write to us at Housing Register, Reigate Town Hall, Castlefield Road, Reigate, RH2 0SH
- once the deadline has passed, we will have a list of interested applicants for each home we advertised. We will then nominate the applicants on the list who have been waiting longest on the register
- the housing association will check all the details of the nominated applicants and providing they are satisfied they will make preliminary offers of the properties
- the successful applicant will then be invited to view the property
- applicants who do not hear from the landlord within a week of the deadline should assume that they have been unsuccessful and try again next time they see a suitable property on this page.
New rules
From September 2011 new rules will apply to many of the properties that we advertise on behalf of Registered Providers (housing associations).
The Government has made changes to the level of rent that can be charged, the type of tenancy, and the length of tenancy. Each Registered Provider (housing association) is implementing these changes differently.
The key changes are:
Some properties will now have higher rents.
Previously, most social housing tenancies have been for life. Some tenancies will now be granted for a fixed term, e.g. five years, before being reviewed.
All types of tenancy will continue to be advertised in the usual way on Home Choice.
If you are considering applying for a property on Home Choice, it is very important that you check the full details carefully - particularly the level of rent, type of tenancy and the length of the tenancy.
If you have any questions about these changes, how to use Home Choice or about your housing register application, please call the Housing Register Team on 01737 276791.
Download a Home Choice information leaflet .
Last updated : 16/01/2012
