Your Home Finding a Home

Transcription

1 Your Home Finding a Home একট ব ড় র সন ন কর

2 Finding a home Whether you are a new or existing customer, we believe you should be able to choose a home that best suits your needs. City West owns and manages over 14,600 homes across West Salford. These range from family homes, accommodation for over 55s through to low-rise flats and multi-storey blocks. We advertise our properties in a number of places to give you access to all our available homes, those from other landlords in other areas and access to properties where people are looking to transfer to another City West property. HomeHunt/Rightmove We advertise a number of our properties through HomeHunt and Rightmove. You can browse and apply for affordable homes in the UK. Search today at HomeSwapper As a customer of City West, you can also take advantage of HomeSwapper. This is the UK s leading mutual exchange service for social housing customers, helping you find someone to swap homes with. Visit for more information. 2

3 How to register for a home The main way we allocate our homes is through the Choice Based Lettings (CBL) system managed by Salford Home Search. This scheme gives you more choice when looking for your new home in Salford. You can register for Salford Home Search in the following ways: Go online to Call in person at Salford Home Search, Salford Opportunities Centre, 2 Paddington Close, Off Churchill Way, Salford M6 5PL Phone Salford Home Search direct on At your local area office where our staff will be happy to assist you to use the customer contact point to either ring or visit the Salford Home Search website If you need help to complete the registration, we will be able to support you. Once you are registered, you will be able to express an interest in advertised properties including those belonging to other registered providers. 3

4 To help ensure your Salford Home Search application is processed without delay, it will help if you provide the following information: One proof of ID, including date of birth, for all applicants over 18 years e.g. Passport Driving License Birth Certificate National Insurance Number AND proof of address e.g. Driving License Utility Bill Bank Statement Medical Card National Insurance Card P45/P60 Wage Slip Benefit/Government Letter Proof of child documents Child Benefit or Child Tax Credit Documents PLUS Medical Card or letter from School or Doctor (with current address details) 4 Depending on your circumstances, the following information may also be required: Proof of pregnancy Tenancy Agreement Residency/Immigration/Visa Certificate NASS 35 Home Office Decision Letter Workers Registration Documents and evidence of employment (A8 Nationals including Bulgaria and Romania) Evidence of Housing/Council Tax Benefit Wage slip Notice to quit

5 Customers who are European Economic Area Applicants are also required to provide proof of nationality. The following countries are in the European Economic Area: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Republic of Ireland and Spain. Customers who are A8 Nationals: Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic including Bulgaria and Romania, must provide Workers Registration Documents and Wage Slip (from within the last month). Students may be eligible for assistance if they have enough resources (as they are unable to claim housing benefit) and must have comprehensive sickness insurance. References Applicants must provide a current landlord reference or a previous landlord reference if they have had a tenancy in the last five years If you need to provide a landlord reference from a local authority or housing association, you will be asked to sign a form to give permission for City West to seek information regarding your previous/current tenancy This will need to be sent to the appropriate organisation with a rent reference request Other references must be from a professional person i.e. current/previous employer, social worker, teacher/tutor, doctor, health visitor etc Documents can either be taken to Salford Home Search or any local area office. If received at one of our local area offices, staff will confirm with Salford Home Search which documents have been seen. This will enable your application to become live and you will then be able to bid for properties advertised. Staff will happily assist and help you with the bidding process. 5

6 Look for available properties Available homes are advertised weekly on salford Home Search: You can search online at You can also find out about availability from the Salford Home Search shop If you have registered with Salford Home Search, you can express an interest in up to three properties each week. New properties are added to Salford Home Search every Wednesday. You can express your interest between 10am on Wednesday to midnight the following Sunday. Property information The advert will show: 1 Gross rent (total per week) 2 A summary of the property details e.g. the number of bedrooms and type of heating system 3 The size and type of property and which applicants will be given preference e.g. single person or family The property sheet advert looks like this. Weekly property sheets are also available from your local area office You could also visit our website to view our available properties

7 A full list of properties let, including the number of requests, length of time on the housing register and the band of the successful applicant, will be available on the Salford Home Search website. See a property you re interested in? If you see a home that you are interested in and you meet the advertised criteria, you must submit a bid. You can do this for up to three properties per week. To make an expression of interest: Visit the Salford Home Search website log in and search the available homes Call Salford Home Search on Text Salford Home Search see property sheet for details Pop into your City West local area office Visit Salford Home Search Successful bids Each Sunday at midnight the advert closes and details of applicants will be assessed. The applicant in the highest priority band who has been waiting the longest and meets the criteria will be offered the property (subject to verification and applicant suitability). 7

8 Transfers and exchanges Can I swap my home with another tenant? You may be able to exchange your home with another City West tenant or a tenant of another Housing Association or local council. Do I need to get permission to exchange? Yes. If you move without permission, you will be asked to move back, and you will not be compensated for any of the costs of the move. There are certain conditions that have to be met before tenants can exchange their homes but City West can only refuse permission under certain circumstances. Please ask your Neighbourhood Officer for advice. How do I find someone to exchange with? Our tenants can join HomeSwapper which is a national database of tenants who are looking to exchange their homes. 8 City West is a member of Homeswapper so the service is free of charge to our tenants. To register, go to and you will be guided through the process. Once your details are verified by City West, you will be contacted either by , text or letter to let you know that a match has been found with another tenant who you could consider swapping with. You can also search by property type and area to see what is available. You can swap your home for another as long as we have given you written permission. If you do exchange, please make sure that the property is what you want as the arrangement is between you and the tenant of the other property. Remember that you must get permission from City West before you move.

9 Our service standards What we ll do and when we ll do it Working with Salford Home Search, we will: Contact you when we allocate the property to ensure the property will meet your needs, and to identify any other assistance you might need, including a financial assessment to establish any support we could provide Contact the successful bidder within 2 working days of the close of the bidding or the previous offer being refused Let a minimum of 10% of properties to existing tenants to make sure they have a reasonable chance to move. We will give particular focus to customers wanting to downsize, releasing larger homes for households that need them Provide accompanied viewings for all our properties Complete mutual exchanges within 30 working days of approval 9

10 How we will monitor our standards and communicate performance to you Our service standards set out the level of service you should expect from City West and we monitor our performance against the standards in a range of ways including: Customer satisfaction surveys Mystery shopping exercises Customer inspections Audits of how we delivered services We publish our performance on our customer website every 3 months and throughout the year in various publications. We review the standards every 2 years in consultation with customers to ensure they continue to meet their needs and expectations. 10

11 Getting in touch numbers are charged at local call rates from both landline and mobile phones and can also be deducted from any inclusive free minutes you may have. This means it should cost you less to call us from a mobile. hello@citywest.org.uk Large print, audio and braille formats can be requested by phone or Français Polski FindHomeV4June15 We are a group member