Choosing your new home is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. We aim to help you choose the property you want, and so we advertise our properties, rather than have a traditional waiting list.

We take account of a household's need for a house too, of course, and we have a priority pass system to help us do this. And because some of our properties are more popular than others, we've built some basic rules into the system to make sure we operate fairly.

Please note that our system works in the same way for new applicants and existing tenants who want to transfer.

Happy hunting!

Maureen Middleton
Director
Link Housing



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Registering

You need to register with us before you can apply for a house - but registration is a very quick and easy process.

All we need is your name, address and date of birth, and the names and dates of birth of everyone who will move with you, and we ask you to sign a few simple statements to confirm that you are eligible for housing under our scheme.

Registration is completed 'whilst you wait' at any of our local offices (or you can apply by post, telephone, or online, although these methods will take longer as we will post out a short form for you to sign and return).

As a registered homehunter, you will receive a homehunt^® Registration Pack. This includes information about how to apply for advertised houses, and forms to register for Priority Passes (which are explained in the downloadable leaflet at the bottom of the page).

We'll also add you to our newsletter mailing list as a welcome to the Association.

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Applying

Once registered you can apply for any property that is advertised (as long as the property is suitable - e.g. it would not result in overcrowding, or there are no restrictions on who can apply stated in the advertisement - for example, sheltered housing is normally reserved for those of retirement age and above).

When you see an advert for a property you are interested in, you should apply for it by telling us your registration number and the property's address. You can do this in person at any of our local offices, or by phone, by post, or online - but you must do this before the closing date and time specified in the advert. If you have a Priority Pass, it will be recognised automatically.

You can apply for as many advertised properties as you wish at any one time. However, if you qualify for more than one offer at the same time, we will assume that the property you apply for first is your first choice, and so on, in the order you chose to apply. If you qualify for an offer on one house, we will disregard any later applications you have made, so the order in which you apply could be very important to you.

Similarly, if there is nothing you like advertised, or perhaps it is not a convenient time to move, there is no need to apply (although if you have a Priority Pass you risk losing it - see Losing Priority Passes in the downloadable document at the bottom of the page). All we ask is that you confirm once a year that you wish to remain Registered with us for housing.

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Downloadable homehunt Guide

You can find all the information stated above and more by viewing or downloading the following file: Linkguide.pdf 800kb

To view this file, you may need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader version 5 or above, it is freely available for use and can be downloaded from http://www.adobe.com

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Data Protection:

Link Housing will use the information you supply for making a decision about whether to offer you a place to stay. If you accept an offer to become a tenant of the Link Group we shall keep the information on your tenancy file. While you remain an applicant and throughout any subsequent tenancy with the Link Group we may add to or modify the information you give to us. This will reflect additional information becoming available from you, from other people or agencies or from our observations.

Link Housing will also use the above information for administrative purposes, reporting, statistical analysis and risk assessments (for which purposes the information will be made anonymous and will not identify you). We may share your information with other organisations within the Link Group, our agents or other service providers and other third parties from whom we may seek information about you. We may also share your information with local authorities, police and other statutory bodies but only as required
by their statutory duties.

Link Housing may search files of credit reference agencies who will record the search. We or they may share information with lenders about the way in which you conduct your account and tenancy, for the purposes of granting credit, prevention of fraud or for tracing account holders.

By supplying information to Link Housing you consent to our processing sensitive personal data about you from one or more of the following classes of data:

• Racial or ethnic origin
• Physical or mental health or condition
• Sexual life
• Commission or alleged commission of an offence

Proceedings for any offence committed or alleged to have been committed or the sentence in court proceedings.

We shall process sensitive personal data for the purposes of making a decision about whether to offer you a place to stay and throughout any subsequent tenancy with the Link Group.

You have a right to apply for a copy of your information, for which we may charge a fee limited by statute, and to have any inaccuracies corrected.

Link Housing and Link Group are registered as Data Controllers under the Data Protection Act 1988.