Bid for a home

Once your housing register application is active and you have been banded, you can apply or ‘bid’ for council and housing association homes advertised on Kent Homechoice.

We use a system called choice based lettings and this gives you more choice about where you want to live, so rather than being allocated a home by us you can bid for the empty homes you are interested in.

Choice based lettings does not increase the amount of available social housing. However, you will have accurate information on how many homes are actually available, where these homes are located and your chances of being rehoused.

Bidding process

All people registered for housing can apply or ‘bid’ for the homes advertised. There is no cost involved in the bidding process.

You can only bid for a property that is suitable for the size of your household.

A shortlist of bidders is drawn up and the applicant with the highest priority will be offered the property if their application meets all of the eligibility requirements. If they choose not to accept the property it will be offered to the next highest bidder and so on. There is no penalty for refusing an offer.

If you are successful with your bid, a housing officer will contact you to verify your application and to arrange a viewing of the property. Once you have viewed it, you must decide within 24 hours whether or not to take the property.

If you do not place any bids within a 12-month period, your application may be cancelled. This will not apply if you can show that no suitable accommodation became available during that time or if there were exceptional circumstances preventing you from bidding.

Applicants whose applications are cancelled may reapply. However, your housing circumstances will be fully reviewed before you are accepted back onto the register.

You will receive written notice if your application is cancelled.

Support

Other statutory and voluntary agencies that support vulnerable members of the community have an important role in ensuring their clients benefit from choice based lettings. They can support their clients to bid for properties. Our staff also provide advice and support.

Need help?

Contact the housing team:

• email: housing@dover.gov.uk
• phone: 01304 801084

You can also complete our online enquiry form.

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