Choice Based Lettings

Our Choice Based Lettings system started in January 2008.

What is Choice Based Lettings?

Choice Based Lettings is an advert based scheme used to allocate council and housing association homes. Choice Based Lettings will not solve the shortage of social housing in Oxford but it will give applicants more choice. 

How do I do it?

You need to find out which properties are being offered for new lets.

You can find the most recent available properties list below. This list is updated every two weeks:

Alternatively you can log on to the Oxfordshire Home Choice website or find adverts in your landlord's offices, in libraries and other places around Oxford.

How often will the properties be advertised?

Every two weeks, so make sure you check the adverts fortnightly.

How do I choose?

The adverts will tell you about the size, type and location of the property, usually with a photo of a similar property type.

Not sure which home to bid for?

You can look at the feedback to see who was successful in earlier bid rounds. That will show you which properties and areas are the most popular.

Who can bid?

You have to be on the Council's waiting list to bid. You can tell us by phone, by text or online. Although we call it bidding, no money changes hands.

Who gets the property?

Everyone who's told us they're interested will be listed in band order. If more than one person in a band applies, people with a local connection to Oxford will be listed first. Then people will be queued up in date order from the time they went into the band.

For more information about bands please visit the Choice Based Letting Bands page.

Will I be more successful if I bid early?

No, your bid is worth the same whether you bid on the first day or the last day. But your queue position will change as other people make their bids, so you may appear higher up the list early on in the bidding cycle.

What if I change my mind?

You can withdraw your bid before the end of the bidding cycle.

My bid was successful - what next?

We will only contact you if you are at the top of the list. The landlord of the property will contact you very soon after bidding closes, so make sure you'll be available. You'll get a chance to ask any questions you have. If you like the property and there are no problems with your application you'll be asked to sign up for the tenancy.

The property turned out not to be suitable

We know that choosing a home isn't easy.

We know we can't show everything about a property in the adverts.

That's why we don't have penalties for refusing a property after viewing (unless it's happening time after time, when we'd need to sort out what's going wrong). But we do ask you to think carefully before refusing a property as your refusal can also affect other applicants.

Unlucky?

You bid for a property, but didn't come top of the list. What can you do now to improve your chances of finding the right home?

• Look at the feedback from previous advert cycles. They will show you what type of applicant was successful and how long they'd been waiting
• That will help you decide whether you need to reassess your ideas about what to bid for. You might choose a less popular type of property or area next time
• You might need to look at other housing options such as private rented or low cost home ownership schemes. Only the same number of properties will be available, so Choice Based Lettings won't make waiting times any shorter.

And there's more...

The changes don't stop there - together with our Oxfordshire partners we're looking forward to Spring 2009, when we start to offer properties for people who want to move to another district.

Page last reviewed 1 Oct 2008