Join the housing register

The Housing Register helps us manage the very high demand for social housing in Kingston

To join the Housing Register you must have a housing need. This means that your current accommodation is not suitable for you or a member of your household.

Unfortunately because there are not enough available homes to meet demand, joining the register does not guarantee you will get a property.

Who can apply

You can apply to join the housing register if you:

• have a right to live in the UK
• are aged 18 years or over
• have a housing need listed in our allocations policy
• have lived in Kingston for 5 years or longer

There are some exceptions to these rules. You can find full information on who can apply in our housing allocations policy.

If you need urgent help

The Housing Register is a long-term opportunity to bid for property and not a solution to an immediate problem. If you are at risk of losing your home, use our Housing Advice resources instead.

Apply to join the Housing Register

Apply for Housing Register

Save and return to your application

If you cannot complete your registration form in one go and need to return to it later, select the finish later button and make a note of the temporary reference number.

We will save your partially completed form for a maximum of 10 days. When you’re ready to finish it, return to your saved registration form and use the temporary reference number.

After you apply

We'll review your application, and if you are eligible to join the register, we will give you a priority band based on your housing need. 

For example, you're likely to have higher housing need if you:

• live somewhere that has a serious effect on the health of anyone in your household
• are in an overcrowded household and lack separate bedrooms
• have severe damage in your home that your landlord cannot fix quickly

In our housing allocations policy, you can find full information on the types of priority bands and how we decide housing need.

When you’ll hear from us

We aim to decide on applications within 10 weeks.. Due to the current volume of applications, many are taking longer to decide. 

Our decision may also take longer if we need additional evidence or to do further investigations. We’ll let you know if we need more information from you. 

Make sure you provide all of the required documentation when you submit your application, as this will reduce the time taken to complete your assessment. 

Accepted applications

If we accept your application, you'll get a decision letter from us that tells you:

• whether your application has been successful or not
• your priority band

If you disagree with our decision or your priority band, you can ask us to review our decision within 21 days of receiving the decision letter.

Rejected applications

We will write and tell you if we cannot accept your application and why. You will only be turned down if you are not eligible for housing according to our allocation policy. 

We’ll also tell you how to appeal if you want to, and you usually have 21 days to do this.

If your circumstances change

Let us know if anything changes that could affect your priority on the Housing Register.

Update your entry to tell us about changes in your:

• household or living arrangements
• medical needs
• contact details like address, email or telephone number

Tell us about a change in circumstance

It’s essential to make sure your housing register entry is up to date. If you do not keep it up to date, you could miss an offer of accommodation or be removed from the Register. 

When you update your record, we’ll pause your account while we update your information. We recommend you bid for any properties you’re interested in before you update your information.

Bidding for properties 

Once you’re on the Housing Register, you can bid for council and housing association properties through our choice-based lettings.

Waiting times 

There is no set time you will wait for an offer of accommodation through the Housing Register. 

The majority of applicants will not be successful in securing an offer from the Register, so we recommend you explore all other housing options. The Register is open to new applicants, and there are currently more than 2000 applications with only approximately 40 family-sized council homes becoming available every year.