Find a property

Wiltshire times, Salisbury Journal, Trade It and the Western Daily Press regularly advertise rented properties.

Local shop windows / community notice boards / supermarket notice boards or anywhere where people may advertise. Landlords often advertise available properties here.

Web sites such as Zoopla, Propertywide and Rightmove advertise available properties.

Sharing a house or flat with others can be a good way to cut the costs of renting in the private sector. Websites such as Flatmate rooms and Houseshare let you post adverts for a houseshare and search for other people in the area who are also looking to share a property.

Agents manage properties on behalf of private landlords. Agents should not charge you to just to look for a property. If you find a property through an agent you will often be charged a fee - usually one third of a month's rent plus VAT. This fee may be non-refundable.

They will also require a deposit and up to two months rent in advance. Wiltshire Council cannot recommend individual letting and management agents but we can provide a list of local letting agents in Wiltshire.

You can choose which properties interest you and place a 'bid' under our Choice Based Lettings Scheme.

• People assessed as having a housing need may join the housing register 
• People we assess as having no housing need, including most owner occupiers, join the Open Market Register  
• To apply to join the housing register complete an online application form at our dedicated Homes4Wiltshire website

Please visit the Homes for Wiltshire website or contact the Homes4Wiltshire team:

Email: homes4wiltshire@wiltshire.gov.uk

Telephone: 0300 456 0104

Homes4Wiltshire
Wiltshire Council
County Hall
Bythesea Road
TROWBRIDGE
Wiltshire
BA14 8JN

• Council tenants may wish to transfer to another property for a number of reasons, perhaps because their family has grown or they have moved jobs
• A tenant who wishes to move will be expected to have kept to the Conditions of Tenancy.

For example, a tenant should not have caused antisocial behaviour and either have no rent arrears or be making genuine efforts to clear them.

Transfers of council properties are now done through the choice-based letting system, Homes 4 Wiltshire.

To apply for a transfer please visit the choice-based lettings site.

• Council tenants can move by exchange with the consent of the council, by finding another tenant who wishes to exchange their home with you.
• The Council is keen to encourage exchanges and consent will only be withheld if your rent is in arrears or if the accommodation that you wish to move to is too large or too small for your needs, or if it has been built for people with special needs, for example; disabled adaptations.

Wiltshire Council participates in the Home Swapper scheme and you can therefore apply to exchange with a tenant in any part of the country. There is a list of tenants wishing to exchange, which is kept in the housing department and is available for you to look at during normal office hours. If you require further details of this scheme do not hesitate to contact us. To read more about how to exchange properties see our fact sheet about applying for an exchange.

If you are a council or housing association tenant you can swap homes with another tenant. This is called a "mutual exchange".

Finding a mutual exchange means you will not have to wait for months (even years) on a housing transfer list. And the best bit is that you get to choose the home you want yourself.

HomeSwapper is a mutual exchange service. You can use this service to help you find a new home. HomeSwapper has the UK's biggest list of members all wanting to swap homes. This means there are millions of possible swaps waiting for you.

A mutual exchange doesn't just mean you have to swap like for like you could:

• Downsize
• Upsize
• Swap across the country...or down the road
• Swap a flat for a house
• A house for a maisonette
• Get somewhere with a garden
• Find a property without stairs or adapted for the disabled
• The choices are endless

Once you have found the property you wish to swap to you must always obtain the written permission from both of your landlords. Your landlords will the complete all the paperwork with you to make your move happen. If you don't have any restrictions on your tenancy agreement and are not in rent arrears your landlord cannot refuse your swap.

To register for HomeSwapper you need to go to the online home page and click on "Join" to complete the online registration form. Once you have completed the registration process, you will have full access to the HomeSwapper  service.

You told us you wanted local homes to go to local people, you wanted the council to manage the expectations of what people can expect, in terms of their housing options and to make the best use possible of our limited housing stock, and that those who have demonstrated they would be good tenants be rewarded.

The majority of vacant homes will be matched to applicants with a strong local connection based on the following criteria:

• Someone living in the area, the residency have to be permanent and the applicant must have lived in the area for six months of the last year or three years of the last five
• Someone in permanent paid employment or who has a fixed term contract for a minimum of one year or permanent offer of paid employment in the area, or is self employed and works predominately in the area
• Someone with close family (grandparents, parents, legal guardian, adult children or brothers and sisters) who have lived in the area for five years or more.

Once a local connection has been confirmed we will allocate to the applicant in the highest band with the longest effective date, which is the date of application.

The banding system was changed in 2015 so it has been simplified it to ensure social housing is accessible to those most in need. Applicants will still have their housing need assessed in the same way and be banded according to their assessed need to move

The Government's bedroom standard will be used to decide the right size of property for applicants. Houses will be allocated strictly according to the size of the household to ensure every allocation is as effective as possible and to counter the "bedroom tax". This is in line with housing benefit rules and private sector housing.

We will exclude the following:-

• Those who have caused unacceptable behaviour enough to make them unsuitable as a prospective tenant
• Those who do not meet the connection criteria to live in Wiltshire
• Those who have assets or income above the financial resource limit and could resolve their own housing needs themselves
• Those who are already adequately housed
• Those who have moved into social housing within the last year
• Those whose own actions have made their housing situation worse.

• A couple who live together
• Someone else in the household who is 16 or over
• Two children of the same sex
• Two children of any sex who are younger than 10
  (A child is someone under 16)

And the following (maximum) number of living rooms:

If you are single and aged under 25 your Housing Benefit will be assessed differently (Single Room Rent) which means you will usually only be able to rent one room (e.g. a bedsit, or a room in a shared house).

If you have more rooms than this, Housing Benefit may not cover some of your rent and you will need to make up the difference yourself. You should contact your local housing benefit department to find out more information and make sure the property is right for you.

You will also need to think about how long you have to find somewhere and move. If you need to move within a short space of time you may wish to widen the areas you'd be happy to live in to give yourself more choice and a better chance of finding somewhere suitable.