How to apply for housing

From 15 August 2022, any customer seeking to join the Housing Register will be asked to have a conversation with a Housing Caseworker on our housing advice line 0300 456 0106 before making a housing application.

The Housing Caseworker and the customer will discuss

the reasons for wishing to join the register and whether there is a housing need under the council's Allocation Policy
opportunities to improve the present housing situation and alternatives to social housing eg private lets and shared ownership

Many advertised homes are now attracting over 100 bids, so it is important for the council and its customers to have these conversations.

We would therefore request that before making contact with a Housing Caseworker you read through the banding criteria of the policy to determine if you have a housing need to join the register.

Eligibility for housing in the UK

Some people from abroad are ineligible for housing so we need to check eligibility for housing.

UK and ROI nationals – a birth certificate or current passport

Where not your own children we require an adoption/residence/guardianship order or a fostering agreement will be required

EEA nationals – a current passport, country ID card or similar document
Nationals of other countries and Refugees – a current passport or Home Office Leave to Remain letter

Residency or association with the Wiltshire Council area

A connection to Wiltshire Council’s area is needed to join our register.

Residency

If you have lived in the Wiltshire Council Area continuously for 2 years and liable for Council Tax or registered to vote, we can confirm your connection through the Council Tax and electoral registration records.

If not, please provide

A copy of a bank/building society statement, utility bill, tenancy agreement or other document showing your name and address from the last 3 months, and

A similar document from between 2 and 3 years ago

Working in the Wiltshire Council area

Please provide either

A copy of your contract of employment* or

A letter from your employer confirming your employment* or

Payslips if these show the place of work or

If self-employed -

A document with details of the partnership, company or, if trading on your own, registration for income tax self-assessment or, if not self-assessed, Class 2 National Insurance contributions

* work includes unpaid internships and regular voluntary work (16 hours+ each week)

Close family members (parents, legal guardians, grandparents, adult siblings and adult children)

We can confirm the length of residency of your close relative by checking their Council Tax records. To enable us to carry out this check, please ensure your relative has completed and returned the attached close relatives authorisation form.

We also require all relevant long birth certificates for parents and 3 generations' birth certificates will be required for grandparents .Where names have changed, copies of the relevant marriage/civil partnership certificates, deed polls or court orders. If we are unable to confirm residency of 5+ years for your relative through our council tax records we will require the following:

A utility bill, Council Tax bill, bank statement, photo licence or similar document. These will be required from both 5 to 6 years ago and within the last 3 months, with documents for each address where the relative(s) concerned have changed address

Guardianship cases

For legal guardians, we will also need a copy of the court order granting guardianship

Adopted children

For adopted children, if a new birth certificate with the adoptive parent(s)'s name(s) is not available, we will also need a copy of the adoption order in favour of the adoptive parents.

Connection based on special circumstances

If you do not have a connection by means of one of the above criteria, we may consider you to have a connection if you have a special reason to be in Wiltshire Council’s area eg a need to receive specialist medical services, support from a close family member or use services which are not available or cannot be provided elsewhere.

Please state on your housing application the reason for needing to move to WiltshireCouncil’s area.

If you have any documents in your possession which demonstrate the need to move to or remain in Wiltshire Council’s area, please provide these. If not, pleasedon’t request a new letter from a health or social care professional. We can contact them for further information. In making a housing application, you consent to the necessary exchange of information to assess whether special circumstances apply.

Important note: Success at bidding through the Homes4Wiltshire choice based lettings scheme is based on parish connections. A parish connection is either residency in the parish where you live for 12 months or more, employment in a parish or the residency of a close family member as above in the parish where s/he lives for 5 years or more. If you bid for a property in a parish where you have a connection, you are placed more highly in the ranking of bids for that property than if you do not have a connection to that parish. We may use the above documents to evidence parish connections. If you state you have other parish connections, Homes4Wiltshire will carry out random checks where an applicant has claimed a parish connection through close family members to confirm these connections.

Exclusion from needing a connection to Wiltshire Council’s area

Some groups of housing applicant are excluded from needing a connection to the Wiltshire Council area, including some people who are or have been in the UK armed forces and reserve forces, some people escaping domestic abuse and verified rough sleepers. More details of who qualifies for not needing a connection may be found in our Allocation Policy. Please click here.

If you believe you are in an exclusion group, please state this on the housing application form and we will seek further information once we commence the housing needs assessment. In the case of current or former armed forces or reserve forces personnel, please provide some written evidence for us to consider eg

Discharge from Armed Forces
Proof of posting/drafting

If you are escaping domestic abuse or sleeping rough, please contact our Housing Options team. Please click here. Contact Us

Dependent children

If you have dependent children, we need to confirm that your home is your child/children’s main residence and that they are dependent on you. Please supply either

Your Child Benefit Award letter for the current or previous tax year showing your name and address and your childrens’ name

a complete bank or building society statement from the last 3 months showing your name and address and the Child Benefit payment. A photo or a PDF of the full statement is required.

If you have more than 2 children and are not receiving Child Benefit for one of them, please supply a letter addressed to you, as the parent of the child, from a school, healthcare service, registered child minder service or children’s nursing service showing you are the main contact for the child at that organisation. We would expect that you will such records available rather than needing to request this specially.

If you are caring for a child who is not your own, and no adoption or special guardianship order has been made, we will need a letter from the local Children’s Services Department of this arrangement.

We may check with other professionals that a child resides with you.

All tenants - evidence rent account is up to date or that any housing debts are being managed

We need to confirm that you either don’t have a housing debt or, if you do, that it is managed. If you have a housing debt we expect either that half has been paid or that you have made regular repayments for 6 months and in both cases are carrying on with regular repayments

Either

A copy of your last 6 months’ rent statement showing rent charges and the payments you have made

A letter from your landlord confirming that rent is either up to date or you have been making payments against any rent arrears

Income

Please send copies of the last 2 months' current account, savings account and investment account statements for both applicant and joint applicant - either in PDF format downloaded from an online bank or building society account or photos of paper statements. The statements must show your name and, preferably, home address. Screengrabs from a mobile phone are not acceptable as do not show all transactions and do not include name and address.

Once you have completed an online application, please note that you can email scanned copies or photos of documents to housingadvice@wiltshire.gov.uk. Once we have received all the information we require we will assess your application. Except where applications are from homeless persons or people in similarly urgent circumstances, we respond in date order. At present, we have a substantial backlog as demand is rising.