City of London Choice Based Lettings - Going live Thursday 29
January 2009
The City of London’s Choice Based Lettings scheme will be going
live on 29 January 2009. From this date any vacant City of London
properties will be advertised on the
City’s
Home Connections webpage and the information will be updated on
a weekly basis. Properties will be available for bidding each week
from Thursday to Monday. For details of how to bid and how the
scheme works download the PDF user guide from the related links
menu on the right of the Home Connections webpage.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Service
The Home Connections automated telephone service has
instructions in 9 community languages in addition to English. These
are: Sylheti, Cantonese, French, Somali, Turkish, Arabic, Punjabi,
Urdu and Vietnamese. Please note the number for bidding is 0845 293
0477.
What is Choice Based Lettings?
Instead of people being 'offered' accommodation, the City of
London Housing Options team will advertise properties on its
Home Connections page
each week. Choice Based Letting schemes are being used successfully
by many other local authorities and are designed to help you become
more involved in the housing application process. If you want to be
considered for any of the advertised homes, you will need to be
listed on the City of London’s housing register and have been
approved for an offer of housing. Once you are registered and
approved, you will be sent a user guide, user ID number and PIN.
You need this information to log in to the site and register your
interest in any of our vacant properties (we call this ‘bidding’).
You can bid for the property you want either online or by phone.
Each property will then be allocated to the individual or family
with the highest need. Once the property has been let, the results
of each weekly bidding cycle will be published on this site.
You can bid any time during the five day cycle (Thursday to
Monday) - day or night via this website and our telephone bidding
line. Your bidding position depends on your points level, not when
your bid is received, so it is not important when you place your
bid. Bids can be placed up to midnight on Mondays.
Please note that some of our viewings are at short notice and it
is very important that you give us your correct phone number so we
can contact you. You may miss out on a viewing if we are unable to
contact you in time. You can supply this information to us in
writing or by phoning the Housing Options team on 020 7332 1237 /
1654 / 1804 or 3934.
What if I have an emergency housing need?
We will still give you advice if you are homeless, threatened
with homelessness or suffering from domestic violence or
harassment. You should contact the Housing Options team on 020 7332
1237 / 1654 / 1804 / 3934. If you are an existing tenant who has an
emergency you should contact your Resident Estate Officer for
advice in the first instance.
Help & Support
We hope that you find the site informative and easy to use. As
with any new system we understand that there may be problems in the
early stages and we will deal with any issues that arise as quickly
as possible. The Housing Options team is here to help you adjust to
the changes. However, as this is a new system we will be answering
lots of calls and queries so may be very busy in the first couple
of weeks.
If you are having problems with the system, please make sure
that you've read our User Guide, which can be downloaded using the
related links menu on the right hand side of the City's
Home Connections
page. The answer to your question may be there. If it isn't or
you have a question relating to your application you can
- Telephone the Housing Options team on: 020 7332 1237 / 1654 /
1804 / 3934
- Write to us at: Housing Options team, Barbican Estate Office, 3
Lauderdale place, EC2Y 8EN
Other housing options
The demand for our homes far exceeds the supply. We regret we
are not able to help everybody who applies to us. Those people we
can help may wait many years. Therefore we positively encourage you
to consider other housing options. You can find out more about
shared ownership and alternative affordable housing using the links
below.