Choice Based Lettings

More Choice in Lettings

Choose where you want to live

Choose

We advertise properties available to rent every Friday in our free Home Choice magazine and on the East London Lettings Company website.

Our property advertisements have pictures and details of the properties and the landlords names to help you decide which properties are right for you.

Your introductory letter states how many bedrooms you can bid for and your registration category on the housing waiting list. Your registration category will be either:

T - A tenant who wants to transfer
PH - A priority home seeker; or
H - A home seeker

Although all of the properties advertised are available to any category, the law says that we must give reasonable preference in our lettings policy to people with particular housing needs.

You may not be able to bid on all properties (we will mention any restrictions in the advertisements). We will not advertise sheltered housing and properties that have been adapted for people with special needs, and the current procedure for offering these properties will continue.

Bid

By bid, we mean you will be applying for a property. Each week you can bid for one property that is appropriate to your registration category.

Bidding is simple. You can either bid by phoning the Home Choice bidding hot line, by text or by using the website. Whichever way you choose to bid, our system will check that the properties you are interested in are appropriate to your registration.

All you need to have is:

Your registration number
Your date of birth; and
The reference number of the property (this number is advertised in the magazine)

We will also tell you your position in the queue.

We will rank your position in the queue for a particular property by comparing your priority and waiting time compared to other people who have bid for the same property.

You can then decide whether to go ahead with your bid or whether to consider bidding for other properties.

If you are behind with your rent, are involved in causing antisocial behaviour or your housing application is delayed for other reasons, you will not be able to bid.

Moving in

When bidding closes, we will list the bids we have received for each property we have advertised.

We will then make final checks to confirm your eligibility if you have the highest priority and have been waiting the longest. We will then arrange viewings of the properties.

If you are at the top of the list and you decide not to accept an offer of a property, we will then offer it to the second applicant on the list and so on. Some landlords will arrange for several people to view the property at once to help prevent properties from staying empty.

More choice in lettings

We, at More Choice in Lettings, advertise properties on behalf of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and registered social landlords (housing associations) who are landlords in the borough.

We aim to increase the housing choice available and to provide a high-quality and efficient service.

Our hot line number is 0845 650 4125 or visit the East London Lettings Company website.

Where to view properties

Listed below is where you can pick up our Home Choice magazine or get free access to the More Choice in Lettings website.

Dagenham Area Office|

Barking Area Office|

Sue Bramley Centre|

Housing Advice Services|

Libraries|

If you cannot leave the house, please let us know by phoning 020 8227 2469 or 020 8227 2180 so that we can send copies of the magazine to you at home.

Contact

Housing Advice Service

Home Choice Assessment Team

John Smith House

Bevan Avenue

Barking

IG11 9LL

Tel: 020 8724 8325

Fax: 020 8227 5080

Email: housingadviceservice@lbbd.gov.uk|

Written enquiries:

PO Box 48

Dagenham

RM10 7DE