Solihull Home Options

Solihull Home Options is the name for the Council's Allocations Scheme which includes partner housing association properties for rent.

Solihull Home Options is a partnership.  You can view information about our partners by visiting our partners page on this website.

• Solihull Home Options enables you to decide where you want to live. Properties that are available for rent will be advertised each week.

• We offer advice and support to assist customers to make the most of their housing opportunities and to plan ahead.  Please use our Housing Options Wizard which will guide you through the different options you can explore to enhance your housing situation. This includes access to Money Advice which includes associated services.

•  All new applicants  will need to complete the Housing Options Wizard prior to completing an application form.  The Housing Options Wizard not only gives you your housing options, but also determines whether you are eligible to join Solihull Home Options. If you are unable to complete an online application, please call into a Solihull Connect office or call us on 0121 717 1515 

• If you would like to view or download our Easy to Read guide, please click here

Medical/Occupational Therapy Assessments

Please note that we are experiencing high demand for medical and occupational therapy assessments.  We are working to process these as soon as possible but due to the high levels an assessment may take up to 12 weeks to complete.

Important changes to the Housing Register

The Council has changed their allocation policy for who is eligible to join the Housing Register. The changes will have affected you if you had previously been assessed and awarded priority ‘Band F’ or ‘Band ‘G’.                                       

From the 29 September 2014 the new Register will be limited to those who meet specific qualification criteria.  A more detailed explanation of this as well as the qualification criteria is available on both the Council’s and SCH’s websites. If you meet the qualification criteria, it is likely that you will qualify for the new Register. If you are currently registered and meet the new qualifying criteria, you will have automatically been moved onto the new Housing Register. If you do not qualify your application will be closed and removed from the Register and we will be writing to you to confirm this.

The main changes have now been implemented, these are:

• Applicants without a housing need will not be registered
• Applicants who are currently resident in the borough for a minimum period of two years immediately prior to submitting their housing application
• Owner occupiers cannot join the Housing Register unless there are exceptional circumstances
• Those who are foster carers or who have served in the British Armed Forces have been given priority
• A small number of properties will be available each year to Council tenants who are registered as a Band 'T' who have no housing need to help them transfer to another property in Solihull
• People who are under occupying a Council or Housing Association house or flat by one or more bedrooms will be given increased priority (Band B)   
• If two offers of suitable accommodation are refused—the application will be suspended for a period of three months.

A full copy of the Solihull Council Allocations policy is available on this website.
For an overview click here.

Last year only 800 properties became available to let and in March 2014 there were over 18,000 people on the housing register.  Meeting this demand is not possible.

The changes will improve efficiencies in the management of the Housing Register while applicants will be responsible for keeping their own housing application up to date.

Please note your queue position at the time you made your bid could change. For example, this may depend on the number of applicants showing interest in a property or verification checks completed on applicants during and at the end of the advertising cycle.

If, for any reason you have difficulty making an application or using the service please contact us on 0121 717 1515 and we will help you.

You can use this website to:

• Apply for housing
• Search for available rental properties
• View results of previous lettings

New Road is a sheltered scheme owned and managed by Bromford.  The scheme offers a 24 hour pull cord system connected to each property but does not have 24 hour warden control or care on site.  Bromford Support provide housing related support within office hours only.  Not all of the properties at New Road are suitable to be adapted for mobility issues so mobility will be assessed before applicants are accepted at the scheme.  If someone requires care, this can be provided by Social Services or privately but would be something that individuals would need to be able to manage and set up themselves or through family, advocates or carers.  Bromford do not provide any care services at New Road.  If you are self funder, you will have to pay the rent, service charge and the support related service charge per week per property.  If you are entitled to benefits to cover these costs then you will not be charged.  All applicants will be assessed by Bromford before anyone is accepted and able to move to the scheme.

What is a lettings plan?
The lettings plan will be applicable for the duration that the homes are being developed and for lettings during the development of the scheme. Upon completion of the development the plan will reviewed to establish whether it has achieved a settled and well balanced community.

Economic Mix
We aim to let our homes across all property types to an even economic mix with people working full or part time, not working, or retired. We aim to achieve this by advertising 50% of all properties to people who are in full or part time work.

Best Use of Stock/additional criteria
Due to the impending Welfare Reform changes we aim to reduce the potential for financial hardship on existing tenants of social housing providers by allocating at least 70% of the new homes to existing tenants who require a move due to under-occupancy, overcrowding or for specific reasons agreed as a management move. We intend to split this between tenants of Bromford Housing association and other social landlords. In the first instance we aim to give preference to customers who meet these criteria before considering people from the housing register for these plots.

Plots identified for Bromford Customers preference will be as follows:
Existing Bromford*tenants who are under occupying their current homes. Existing Bromford* Tenants who are overcrowded. Tenants *of other social landlords who are under-occupying their current home. Tenants* of other social landlords who are overcrowded. Applicants from the housing register. * Note that existing customers who are currently resident in Solihull will be given first preference

Plots identified for tenants of other social landlords, preference will be as follows
Existing tenants* of other social landlords who are under occupying their current home. Existing tenants* of other social landlords who are overcrowded. Bromford tenants* who are under occupying their current home. Bromford tenants* who are overcrowded. applicants from the housing register(who are in full or part time employment)

Plots identified for applicants from the housing register preference will be as follows
Applicants from the housing register. Bromford customer as per above criteria. Tenants of other social landlords as per above criteria

Other qualifying criteria
1. Bromford Housing Association eligibility and child sharing criteria/policy must be met
2. All applicants, transfers and cases registered as homeless are to be visited at home to assess the property. Standard of property must be in good decorative order and overall good property standards for private/council/housing association tenants and good bedroom/sleeping area standards for applicants. Standard template to be completed on all visits.
3. People being rehoused due to Domestic Violence must be moving more than 3 mile radius from the address they are fleeing violence from. Consideration will be given to individual cases where multiple agencies agree that a move within a 3 mile radius is appropriate.
4. People who have been awarded homeless priority status by the LA must meet the relevant criteria set out in point 3, 7 and 9 of the other qualifying criteria in terms of domestic violence, rent arrears and anti social behaviour.
5. All details on application form to be verified during the visit.
6. Tenancy references are required for those residing in private rented accommodation, other local authority accommodation or housing association properties.
7. There must be no current outstanding rent arrears or former tenancy arrears/debts to any housing providers.
8. In accordance with the Housing Association Policy, a minimum level of information is required for verification at the accompanied viewing for applicants.
9. There must be no current anti-social behaviour case outstanding with the ASB Team/SMBC or any other local authority or housing association, or any previous ASB History that could affect the housing application.
10. Applicants are required to provide a minimum of 2 proofs of residence at their registered address. These proofs need to show their name at the address and can be in the form of a bank statement, income support/JSA claim, GP Letter, Bills. mobile phone statement. This is not an exhaustive list and 2 items or formal correspondence at the address will be sufficient. This excludes households such as homeless cases who have been required to move urgently at short notice due to the nature of the homeless application and are therefore unable to produce evidence. The homeless casework team can provide details of the case.

Solihull Home Options has changed it's re-registration process.

When your housing application is due for review, you will receive an online notification in your Housing Options summary screen, advising you that a review of your housing application is now due.

You will be asked to review your current details and notify us of any changes in your circumstances that we are not already aware of. Once you have received the online notification you have 21 days to review your details. After this time if your review remains outstanding a reminder letter will be sent to the address we hold for you allowing you a further 28 days to complete your review.

If you fail to respond to this reminder no further reminders will be sent and your housing application will be closed. If you are unable to access the internet, please call our Housing Contact Centre on 0121 717 1515, who will be happy to help you.