Join the housing register

The Housing Register is a list of all households who wish to be considered for social housing.  The demand for social housing in the district far outstrips the supply.  At any one time, there are over 2,500 households on the Housing Regsiser with approximtely 3-400 preoperties available each year.

Anyone can apply to join the Housing Register, regardless of what their housing circumstances are.  Due to the scarcity of social housing, this means that there are many households on the Register who will never be offered social housing.

When an eligible person applies to the Register, their application will be assessed and placed in one of five Bands; 1-5.  The higher the band the higher the priority.  People who are assessed as Band 5 are considered to be adequately housed.  Households who are in Band 5 will not be offered social housing. The only exception to this is households who are eligible for elderly persons accommodation or those who are eligible for Shared Ownership.  If you do not fall into these two categories and are in Band 5, you may wish to consider other options such as private rented accommodation.  Please see our section on accessing the private rented sector for more information.

Who is eligible to join the Housing Register?

You must be over the age of 16 to apply to join the Housing Register.  However, if you are under 18, you will normally only be considered for supported accommodation.

Only people who are eligible can join the Housing Register.  People who are not eligible include:

- Some people who are subject to immigration control

- People who have previously been guilty of unacceptable behaviour. This could include anti-social behaviour or neighbourhood nuisance

How can you join the Housing Register?

You can apply to join the Housing register on-line at www.oxfordshirehomechoice.org.uk and clicking on the South Oxfordshire District Council logo.  You then need to click on the “on-line form” button.

You will be asked to enter details regarding your household and housing circumstances.  Your application will not be submitted until you tick that you have understood and agreed to the declaration and pressed the SUBMIT button.

You do not have to complete the form in one go; you can return to complete your registration later. You will be given a reference to allow you to do this.  You must complete and submit your application within 6 weeks of starting it or your application will be cancelled.

Once you tick that you have read and agree with the declaration and press the SUBMIT button, your application will be passed to the Council who will check and assess it.  We will aim to assess all completed applications within 20 working days.

Once we have assessed your application, we will send you details confirming your band, reference number and information on the Council’s Choice Based lettings scheme.

You do not normally need to provide any proofs or supporting documents at the point of application.  If you make a succesful  bid, we will require you to provide proofs suppoirting your application within 24 hours. If you are bidding, you may wish to have this information ready.  If you do  not provide this information, you may not be offered the property.

Proofs required at this point include:

-          proof of ID for you and everyone who will be re-housed with you

-          proof of residence

-          any other information specified by the Council.

For  a copy of the Council’s Allocations scheme, please refer to the PDF in the downloads section of this page. For information on Choice Based Lettings, please go to www.oxfordshirehomechoice.org.uk

For a copy of the council's allocations policy please follow the attachment on the right of the screen.