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 (opens new window), Propertywide (opens new window) and Rightmove (opens new window) 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 (opens new window) and SpareRoom: houseshare.com (opens new window) let you post adverts for a house share 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 Homes4Wiltshire (opens new window) website or contact the Homes4Wiltshire team:

Email: housingadvice@wiltshire.gov.uk (opens new window)

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 (opens new window).

• 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 (opens new window) 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 (opens new window) 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 (opens new window) service.

In Wiltshire Council's area, the council itself has homes primarily in the south.  In other areas, the council relies on other social landlords to help it to meet housing need.  The council operates a 'choice based lettings scheme'.  Customers in housing need who have been admitted to the council's Housing Register express an interest in advertised homes via a web-based account on the council's dedicated choice based lettings website Homes4Wiltshire - www.homes4wiltshire.co.uk (opens new window).

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 social rented 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 parish connection based on the following criteria -

• Someone living in the Wiltshire Council area and who has lived in the particular parish where a home is advertised for two years continuously
• 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 live in the area and have lived in the area for five years or more continuously
• Someone with a need to move to the Wiltshire Council are or remain in the Wiltshire Council area in light of special circumstances, for example to use services or support unavailable in other areas without which detriment to health or well-being will be suffered

Council homes will be allocated, and nominations made to our partner social landlords, based on parish connections first, then by band, Band 1 being the highest, and then by length of time in the particular band.

A small number of housing applicants, including people escaping domestic abuse and people in the armed forces and some people formerly in the armed forces, do not need parish connections but the majority of homes are allocated in this way.

The council's banding system was simplified in 2015 to ensure social housing is accessible to those most in need.  There are 4 bands.

Band 1 - Emergency band

Band 2 - Urgent band

Band 3 - Standard band.   This is where most housing applicants are placed and to whom most offers of accommodation are made. 

Band 4 - Other Needs band.  This band includes people who are adequately housed but who wish to move from shared to self-contained accommodation, to sheltered or extra care housing or who lack one bedroom amongst others (please see the website for more information about the bands). 

The majority of housing applicants are in Bands 3 and 4 and, as the majority of homes are allocated to customers with connections to the parishes in which the homes are located, band is not as important as it was before 2015.

The government's bedroom allocation from the Universal Credit and Housing Benefit rules is used to decide the right size of property for applicants.  Homes will be allocated strictly according to the size of the household to ensure every allocation is as effective as possible and to ensure that people can always afford their homes if they need help with their rent.

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 the Wiltshire Council area
• 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 housing within the last year unless there has been a change of housing circumstances meaning that the new home is no longer suitable
• 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.