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The journey to finding a new home with
Riverside can be confusing but we’ve put
together a simple step by step guide to make
finding your new home, a breeze.
You apply for social housing through your local council.
Each council has its own eligibility criteria and process, and these are available through their website.
You’ll usually have to join a waiting list and you’re not guaranteed to get a property. You can ask your council how long you’re likely to have to wait, depending on your circumstances.
Choice-based lettings
Most councils have a choice-based letting (CBL) scheme. This lets you tell your council which properties you’re interested in. We advertise most of our homes via Choice based schemes and applicants are prioritised based on housing need. For example, you’re likely to be offered housing first if you:
- are homeless
- live in cramped conditions
- have a medical condition made worse by your current home
Riverside website
A small proportion of our homes are advertised on our website and/or Rightmove. These are allocated on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, but the steps in the process from Contact from Riverside lettings team onwards are the same.
Finally, welcome to your new home!
You will receive the keys to your new home along with copies of all the relevant safety certificates and agreements. We will take meter readings and pass these on to the suppliers together with your contact details to ensure you are set up straight away and don’t fall behind with payments. Your gas supply will be capped off in line with our Gas safety procedure so for homes with pre-payment meters you will need to get in touch with the supplier to get your utility account activated asap. Once this has been done you can call our customer service centre on 0345 111 0000 and we’ll arrange for an engineer to uncap your gas at a time convenient for you.