Bid for social housing

You can bid for any suitable properties which have the number of bedrooms your household is entitled to.

Bidding for some properties will only be open to certain groups, such as households with disabled or ill family memebers, homeless households or overcrowded households.

You should only bid for properties you really want as you may be penalised if you turn down homes offered to you.

Vacant properties that aren’t advertised

We sometimes offer individuals and families vacant properties rather than advertising them for bids. We may do this for:

• people are vulnerable or who have specific housing needs
• tenants whose homes are being demolished or having major works
• homeless households whose lease on temporary accommodation has ended and who haven’t successfully bid for a property
• households in cases of extreme hardship
• overcrowded households that have been living in temporary private accommodation for more than a year (through the Breathing Space scheme) if the private landlord decides to end their tenancy
• live-in council workers we have a duty to re-house, such as a school caretaker, if they haven’t bid successfully for a home by the time they retire or resign

If a property is advertised but no bids are received, we contact suitable applicants and ask if they would like it.

Properties advertised to other London boroughs

Up to five per cent of our vacant properties are being advertised to people living in other London boroughs under the Mayor of London’s Housingmoves scheme.  People in this borough cannot bid for these homes.

But council and housing association tenants in Kingston upon Thames can bid for properties offered by other London boroughs through the same scheme, if they want to relocate.

Move to another London Borough

Being offered accommodation you didn't bid for

The Allocations scheme also permits some Target Groups to receive a Direct Offer outside of properties advertised through the Choice Based Lettings system.

This occurs where a property is identified for a specific Target Group whose rehousing is based on ‘priority date of application’ or special request for accommodation e.g. Homeless Target Group, Sheltered Target Group, or Under-Occupiers