Listed below are our top ten Frequently Asked Questions. Also take a look at our Factsheets, which we will continue to produce to help you with certain aspects of the scheme. But if you can't find an answer to your question here, please give us a call on 0121 675 5779.
1. How do I apply for Social Housing in Birmingham?
2. Can I apply? Who can be offered a property?
3. How will you assess my application?
4. What is ‘Choice Based Lettings?
5. How does the scheme work?
6. How do I ‘bid’ for properties?
7. Where can I see the properties and will all properties be advertised?
8. What is a bid?
9. What happens after I have made a bid?
10. How long will it take me to get a property?
11. I need accommodation larger that one bedroom. Why can't I bid? When will I be able to bid?
1. How do I apply for Social Housing in Birmingham?
You will need to be registered with Birmingham Home Choice. If you are an existing applicant with Birmingham City Council you will already be registered. If you are an existing Midland Heart or Family Housing Association Tenant you will have been contacted to complete a Birmingham City Council Housing Application form. If neither of these apply, you will need to complete a Birmingham City Council housing application form to be assessed under Birmingham’s allocations scheme to register on Birmingham Home Choice, if you are an existing tenant of another registered social landlord, talk to your landlord for further information.
Once you are registered you will be contacted by Birmingham City Council in writing to advise you of the level of housing need points attributed to your application for social housing. You will also be issued with a unique user identification and PIN number. These will enable you to access Birmingham Home Choice and start bidding for advertised properties. It is important that you make a note of these numbers but if you do lose them you can request them from the neighbourhood office.
2. Can I apply? Who can be offered a property?
Anyone aged 16 or over can apply to join the housing register as long as you can show us proof of identity. We do have some rules about who can be made an offer of a home. Some of the rules are because of the law and others are because it is Birmingham City Council policy. The law stops us from offering a home to people subject to immigration control and certain people from abroad. It is also the council policy not to offer a home to:
- 16 and 17 year olds unless there are exceptional circumstances
- any applicant where we have decided that they or a member of their household is guilty of behaviour which would make them unsuitable to be a tenant at the time that the application is considered.
3. How will you assess my application?
The council does not have enough empty homes to offer a home to everyone on the housing register. This means we need to have a way of deciding who needs to move more urgently than others. We will do this by awarding points for certain types of housing situations or housing need. An applicant with 100 points for example needs to move more urgently than a person with no points. By law the council has to give ‘reasonable preference’ to certain types of housing need.
We will advise you what types of properties we will be consider you for. This is based on the number of people in your household and their age, sex and relationship to each other.
4. What is ‘Choice Based Lettings?
The Government wants all Local Authorities to introduce a way of offering people more choice of where they want to live. This must be in place by 2010. Choice Based Lettings is a way of letting social housing by showing all the available properties to people applying for housing and letting you say which ones you are most interested in. This will make allocations more transparent, easier to understand and fairer. In Birmingham this scheme is called Birmingham Home Choice. It includes our pilot scheme, Urban Choice, which ran the North of Birmingham. Feedback from our customers indicated that this was a very popular method of letting properties.
5. How does the scheme work?
Once we have assessed your application, we will send you your registration certificate. This will tell you your points, your band, and what you are eligible to bid for. For example, if you do not need adaptations or sheltered accommodation you will not be eligible to bid for it. You can then use your points to bid for properties you wish to be considered for. Of the people eligible to bid, those assessed as having most need and therefore most points, will all be invited to view the property. The person with most points will be offered the property first. If they refuse it we will then offer it to the person with the second highest points and so on.
6. How do I ‘bid’ for properties?
Select the property you are interested in living in and then tell us by making a bid using the internet, digital TV, text messaging service or telephone. You can also get a friend or relative to bid on your behalf, this is known as assisted bidding. A small number of customers will not be able to bid. If this applies to you, we will let you know.
7. Where can I see the properties and will all properties be advertised?
We will advertise all the available properties each week from 12.01 am on Thursday until 11.59 pm the following Tuesday. You can bid at any time between these times. It makes no difference to your position on the list of interested people when you bid so if you bid first it does not mean you will come first. During the week other people will bid so your position will move up or down depending on who else bids or changes their bid.
You can see the properties on our website. There will also be a property news letter that is printable from any PC, or, if you do not have access to a PC, from a variety of access points across the city. An access point is somewhere where you can access the scheme and sometimes get support depending on which access point you choose. A list of these is available from the website and your local Neighbourhood Office. Our enquriries team can also tell you where your nearest access point is.
8. What is a bid?
Placing a bid is the way that you let us know you want to be considered for a property. No money is involved, you bid with your points. A bid is simply an expression of interest in a property. You can bid either on our website, by phone, text or digi TV. You may make up to 3 bids per weekly bidding cycle. The bidding cycle runs from 12.01 Thursday morning to 11.59 pm Tuesday. People with the highest number of points will be shortlisted and invited to view the property
9. What happens after I have made a bid?
If you are shortlisted you will be contacted by us to inform you of the viewing date and time. If you are unable to attend the viewing you will not normally be considered for the property. At the viewing you will be asked whether or not you would want to accept the property according to your points. If the person with higher points refuses the property it will then be offered to the person with the next highest points and so on.
You will not normally be penalised for refusing a property, however, there are some restrictions for some homeless and clearance customers. We will let you know if these apply to you
10. How long will it take me to get a property?
Choice Based Lettings will not create extra properties but it will give you a chance to see all the properties available each week and to see how many points the successful applicant had and how many people applied for the property. You can do this by checking the results published on the website of the number of points the successful bidder had. This information will give you an idea of who is being successful in bidding for properties you are currently interested in, and whether you need to alter your bidding choices. If you bid for a property you will be able to see where you came in the bidding list , so you should check this. You can change your bid at any time if you are higher on the list for one property than another. How long it will take depends on how many other people are bidding for the same or similar properties. You should explore other housing options as well as there are more people wanting properties than are available.
11. I need accommodation larger that one bedroom. Why can't I bid? When will I be able to bid?
There are lots of people who have applied to the council for help with housing and are on Birmingham City Council's housing register. Birmingham Home Choice is a big change for us, and an important change for our customers, and we want to make sure that we get it right.
Birmingham Home Choice is currently only available for Birmingham City Council customers who need studio or one bed accommodation or sheltered accommodation. RSL customers can see a different range of properties.
We will be letting larger properties through Birmingham Home Choice in the near future. We will write to you before this happens to tell you when you need to start bidding.
In the meantime, Birmingham City Council will continue to allocate homes in the traditional way to customers who need 2, 3, or more rooms.
We would suggest that you take this time to familiarise yourself with the website and how the scheme works. Our User Guide is available to download from the website. This FAQ page answers many queries that you may have about Birmingham Home Choice and how it works. Our website also contains information on Birmingham Home Choice and the housing options that you can consider in order to be rehoused more quickly.
It's your choice...will you be ready?
These Fact Sheets contain information to help you with various aspects of Birmingham Home Choice. We will add to these in the coming weeks. If the FAQ's above don't answer your query, please look through our selection of fact sheets to see if they can help you.
Fact Sheet 1
