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Choice Based Lettings

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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:

Direction Home Property List - 26th November 2008 (4049KB PDF)

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?

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.


Where you live



Contact Details

Choice Based Lettings Team
St Aldate's Chambers
109 St Aldate's
Oxford
OX1 1DS

Tel: 01865 252663

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Related documents
Choice Based Lettings User Guide (527 kB PDF)
Direction Home Newsletter 26th November 2008 (4049 kB PDF)
Help with PDFs


External links
Oxfordshire Home Choice - Choice Based Lettings

See also
Bands

News
Housing news


Housing FAQs
Housing
Council housing




Bands

Details of Choice Based Lettings Bands.



Page last reviewed 28 Nov 2008

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Copyright © Oxford City Council 2008