A new way of allocating council properties began on 20 May 2013. This applies to all applicants for Thurrock Council and Housing Association properties in the borough. Find out more at: Housing Allocations changes from May 2013.
If you would like to move into a council property or a housing association property, you must first apply to be included on one of the following two lists:
If you are an existing council tenant wishing to be added to the Transfer List, please also see our Council Tenants - Moving Home page.
The information below is for applicants wishing to be added to the Housing Register. Please note that we check all the details you give on your application form to see if you are eligible for housing. If we need to, we will ask you to provide more information or proof.
If you are aged 18 or over, you may apply to join our Housing Register unless:
People who live outside Thurrock can also apply to join our Housing Register if there is a local connection with the borough. These applicants must meet at least one of the following criteria at the time of registration:
Applications from overseas will not be considered until the applicant has entered the United Kingdom.
You can be classed as a Thurrock resident if you are temporarily living outside the borough because you are either serving in HM Forces, a student studying away, working away on a fixed term contract of less than two years, or serving a prison sentence.
If your application to join the Housing Register is successful you will be sent a letter confirming:
Your application will be placed into one of three 'priority bands':
You will then be able to start looking through a list of available homes, and to 'bid' (apply) for the home of your choice. To find out more, see How do I bid for council housing?
If we decide that you are not eligible to apply, we will notify you - in writing - of our decision and the reason(s) for it. You have the legal right to request a review of our decision by writing directly to the Housing Registration Manager.
Once you have been accepted onto our Housing Register you must notify us of any change in your circumstances as soon as possible. For example, you must let us know of:
In addition, you must contact us on a yearly basis to let us know whether you wish to remain on our Housing Register. You will also need to let us know of any changes to your circumstances in the last 12 months that you had not told us about before. You need to ensure that your application is kept up to date.
We will contact you at the address you put on your application, each year, in the month you registered your application. For example, if you registered with us on 10 January 2012 then we will write to you between the 1 January and 31 January 2013. We will give you 14 days to complete and return the re-registration form to us. If you have not sent this form back within 14 days then we will send you a final letter reminding you that you must return your completed re-registration form within the next 14 days or we will cancel your Housing Register application.
If we cancel your Housing Register application, you will need to re-apply to us at a later date. You will not be able to keep your former application date so you may lose the time you have already spent on the Housing Register.
Once your name is on the Housing Register it is for you to choose when you wish to 'bid' (apply) for property advertised by Thurrock Choice Homes, our Choice Based Lettings scheme.
It is not possible for us to tell you how long you need to wait to be successful when bidding for properties. There are many more applicants than available properties. Applicants can typically wait several years before being able to bid successfully, but there are several ways you can assess your chances of being successful when bidding.
For more information on bidding and Thurrock Choice Homes, please visit our How do I bid for council housing? page.
You can find out more about registering and bidding from the pages linked below:
01375 652652
01375 652359
