Welcome to RBC Living & Homes

RBC LIVING & HOMES is an independent, choice based lettings scheme, designed to manage expectations about the supply, demand and availability of social housing within the Borough of Runnymede.

You now have the chance to choose the type of property and the area in which you want to live. You will be able to see an advert of the properties which are available to rent, which you can then express an interest in. Express an interest explained.

RBC LIVING & HOMES is working in partnership with LHS who are an organisation which specialise in choice based lettings and who work with many other organisations to offer this service.

This scheme can be used by existing Runnymede Council tenants as well as applicants who are living with family, have a private rented tenancy or other forms of occupation (other than existing home or property ownership) and who are on the Housing Register. These applicants are known as HOMESEEKERS or TRANSFERS.

Once you are accepted onto the RBC LIVING & HOMES Housing Register your application will be assessed into one of four Bands, A to D, with Band A being the highest priority. Within some bands there is also a priority order. For Band A, priority is based on the date the application was given this award. Bands B –D are based on the registration date of the application.

The Council will not automatically allocate a particular property to you, except in the case of homeless households who have no right of choice. Instead, you will need to look at the adverts of properties that are available for rent, which will be advertised on this website.

You need to look at these adverts fortnightly and decide whether you are interested in a property and whether you can bid based on the picture icon in the advert. This includes things like the number of bedrooms, property type such as house, flat, maisonette, bungalow, and whether the property is suitable for people with mobility problems. Picture icons are explained here.

You will need to bid for a property if you want to be considered for it. The applicant with the highest banding and priority within this banding will normally be invited to view the property and may view with other shortlisted applicants.

In the feedback section you will be able to see how homes advertised previously were let; the level of priority the successful bidder had; and how long they waited for a new home. This information may help you decide on whether to expand or change your choice of property type e.g. house, flat or area.

Choice Based Lettings does not create any more properties but simply offers a choice to applicants and gives a realistic picture of availability. The more restrictive an applicant is in bidding, the longer they are likely to wait to be rehoused. Social housing will not meet the demand for homes in the Borough and it is important that applicants see this bidding process as one option amongst others that they may be able to pursue.