Eligibility

Am I Eligible?


To be eligible to register with Homes For Westminster (HFW), you must:

  • be a first time buyer or you will have sold any property you owned in the UK or abroad prior to completing on a property in Westminster


Additionally, you must not exceed the maximum household income threshold of £90,000.

There may be occasions where the maximum household income may be lower than those stated above. Therefore it is recommended to check the details of the property you are interested in.

Please note, that for 2 and 3 bedroom properties, priority will go to families with children, then sharers, followed by couples and then single applicants.

Children are defined as being aged under 18.

Once you have registered with us there may be further eligibility criteria you must meet before applying for schemes such as:

  • Income
  • Savings
  • Assets
  • Length of registration
    We will give you information about your eligibility for the schemes you are interested in and advise you how to proceed.

What is the selection process?


Once you have registered with us, we will let you know the priority group you have been given. This will be based on your current housing situation and the information you provide on your registration form.

You will be placed in one of the following priority groups:

Priority Group

                                  Category

                                             Priority Group Details

1

 

Social housing tenants in Westminster giving up their properties, which will result in their property being allocated to another household on the council’s waiting list

First offer will be to social housing tenants, either council or registered provider(note1)

 

Ministry of Defence (MOD) serving personnel

 

Second offer will be to MOD serving personnel(note 2)

 

Sons and daughters of existing council tenants who are currently overcrowded

 

Third offer will be to sons and daughters of existing council tenants that are overcrowded in their Westminster City council home note 3

 

Certain households in Westminster intermediate rented properties

Discretionary Priority 1 Group (note 4)

 

Fourth offer will be to tenants currently living in intermediate rented properties in Westminster that need to move because they are overcrowded, or they are moving on into low cost home ownership or are living currently in shared IMR accommodation into which the Council has nomination rights note 4

2

Waiting List for social housing in Westminster

 

First offer will be to homeless households, where the council has a statutory duty to rehousing them

Second offer will be to all other households on the waiting list

3

Resident workers

 

Households that have been resident in Westminster for at least the last 12 months and have been employed in Westminster for at least the last 12 months

 

First offer will be to residents that are key workers(note 5)

4

Westminster residents

 

Households that have been living in Westminster for at least the last 12 months

5

Working in Westminster

 

People employed in Westminster for at least the last 12 months*

First offer will be to key workers(note 5)

 

 

6**

 

(a)  Westminster Residents and Workers who have lived or worked in Westminster for less than 12 months. Priority for workers will be for key workers employed in Westminster.(note 5) 

 

 

(b) all other non-Westminster residents and workers who qualify for intermediate housing.

 

Westminster Residents and workers will be prioritised over non-Westminster residents and workers.

 

 

 

Priority within the P6(a) banding is to applicants who live and work in Westminster, then to Westminster residents and then to Westminster workers.

 

 

* Applicants (applicant 1 or 2 on the completed HFW registration form) should have been spending the majority of their week employed within Westminster (at least 16 hours per week) for at least the last 12 months, this should also be their main source of employment currently and needs to be evidenced in a letter from their employer.

** Applicants from priority band 6 can only be considered for Westminster intermediate opportunities following the first 3 months of marketing of intermediate housing schemes, or where there is lack of demand from priority bands 1-5, at which point applicants in priority banding 6(a) will have priority within the priority 6 banding.  Please note that for certain intermediate housing opportunities in Westminster, they may not be open to Priority 6 (b) applicants, this will be made clear where this applies.

Existing Intermediate tenants living in shared accommodation, can apply for a self-contained intermediate accommodation.

Anyone caught submitting fraudulent documents to evidence their eligibility, identity or connection to Westminster will be removed from the applicant register and will not be permitted to re-apply to Homes For Westminster.

Note 1: Register Provider tenants will only be prioritised within priority group 1 where their landlord confirms in writing that Westminster will have nomination rights to resultant void. 
 
Note 2: Service personnel (in full time employment within the MOD) that have successfully completed basic phase 1 training and are one of the following - regular service personnel (including Navy, Army and Air Force), Clinical staff (with the exception of doctors and dentists) Ministry of Defence Police Officers, Uniformed staff in the Defence Fire Service.   They are ex-regular service personnel who have served in the Armed Forces for a minimum of six years, and can produce a Discharge Certificate (or similar documentation) where they apply within two years (24 months) of the date of discharge from service or they are the surviving partners of regular service personnel who have died in service, where they apply within two years (24 months) of the date of being bereaved.
 
Note 3: Overcrowded applicants living in Council accommodation need to evidence their household is registered as overcrowded with Westminster’s Housing Solutions Service.
 
Note 4: Existing intermediate rental (IMR) tenants who have evidenced that they are overcrowded in their current accommodation (evidenced with a letter from their current landlord) and need to move as a consequence, or where an existing intermediate rental tenancy is not being renewed through no fault of the tenant (and remain eligible for intermediate housing) and they are applying with 6 months or less remaining on their current IMR tenancy. Westminster City Council will require the existing intermediate rented home to be offered for nomination once it becomes void. 
 
Note 5: Westminster key workers are: NHS Health Service Clinical Staff (excluding doctors and dentists); Public Sector Teachers (including Teaching Assistants who can evidence twelve months continuous employment in Westminster); Police; Social Care Workers (with a professional qualification and also those without a professional qualification who can evidence twelve months continuous employment in Westminster).

 

Note 6: Self employed applicants (single or joint applicants) – any self-employed applicants should submit their last two years of HMRC submitted tax returns, annual income is calculated by taking an average of the net profit of these last 2 tax returns.  For self employed applicants with a limited company (which should be registered with Companies House) if this company is based within Westminster that can be evidenced as a Westminster employment.  For self-employed applicants who do not have a limited company, a letter on headed company paper from your Westminster based contractor (from a senior staff member) is required.  This should include the date your contract commenced, the number of hours worked for that contractor each week, a copy of your contract, and the full address of the contractor.

 

Properties will be offered to households with the highest priority. If they do not complete on the property, it will then be offered to the next highest priority household and so on until the property is taken.

 

For all intermediate rent (IMR) properties listed on this website, the monthly rent quoted on each property advert always excludes all bills.

All property details listed on the website are provided by the intermediate housing providers that Homes For Westminster work with, these housing providers are responsible for the details listed, for any queries in relation to these details please discuss this with the housing providers directly.

Applicants currently housed in intermediate rent (IMR) accommodation are only eligible to re-register for further IMR opportunities if they are now overcrowded in their IMR property (as confirmed by their landlord) or they are in the last 6 months of their IMR tenancy with no option to extend it through no fault of their own.

Single applicants currently residing in intermediate rental (IMR) studio apartments are deemed to be adequately housed and therefore are not overcrowded, unless their landlord confirm otherwise.  Couples currently residing in IMR studio apartments are deemed as being overcrowded (providing this is confirmed by their landlord) and are therefore eligible to apply for a 1 bedroom IMR property.

You may be requested to provide details of any benefits you receive, these details will be shared with intermediate housing providers who as landlords make the final decision regarding applicant eligibility.

Please note you have an obligation to inform the service of any subsequent changes in your circumstances once you have registered, to ensure that your registration remains up to date.

A full disclosure of total household income is required at the point of registration and whilst you subsequently remain on the housing register, to evidence that you qualify at all times for intermediate housing.

Please be aware that some intermediate housing providers may not be able to proceed with your application if you don't have indefinite leave to remain and/or no recourse to public funds, this will be a decision taken by each housing provider during their applicant referencing stage and done on a case by case basis. 

Often properties advertised on the HFW website can be oversubscribed with applicant expressions of interest, in the case of single properties (for rent or sale), when 8-10 expressions of interest are received the advert will then be removed from the HFW website.  The households with the highest priority will then be invited to a viewing.  Our advice to all households is to express your interest in available properties as soon as you see them advertised on the website, emailing over a summary of your current application details at that time - including your contact details, your current household income, the number of adults and number of children on your application and your current connection to Westminster (the amount of time living, working or both in Westminster).

Where households have the same priority banding and the same current housing need, priority will be to the household with the lowest qualifying household income, if household incomes are exactly the same then priority is to the household who has been registered for the longest period of time with HFW.

Please note that for intermediate homes being delivered by Westminster City Council within its estates and land, local residents who are eligible for intermediate housing will have higher priority over other intermediate eligible households who are not living locally to these developments.

Should you be successful in finding a property through the service (rental or home ownership) your application will be subsequently closed.

Existing home-owners seeking to register with Homes For Westminster

Please note that if you are an existing home-owner (in the UK or abroad) and seeking to register with Homes For Westminster (HFW), we can only accept an application from you once you have exchanged contracts on the sale of your current property.  When applying please send a copy of the evidence of this exchange of contracts, please also include the expected proceeds from the sale of your property within your total savings declared on your completed HFW registration form. Please note that applicants for home ownership schemes must not have an annual household income exceeding £90,000. Some providers may also impose restrictions on the level of savings you have in order to qualify to purchase their shared ownership properties.

Re-registering with the Homes For Westminster service

You would be eligible to re-register with Homes For Westminster, providing you were deemed eligible and seeking to move between rental accommodation (possibly due to being overcrowded) or were moving due to having no prospect of renewal of your current intermediate rental tenancy, through no fault of your own, with less than six months remaining on it.  You could also be eligible if you were seeking to move into homeownership from your current intermediate rental accommodation.  If you were already a home owner, you would need to be selling your current property (with a buyer in place) prior to being eligible in reapplying for other opportunities (home ownership or rental).

You would not be eligible to re-join (or remain on) the Homes For Westminster applicant register if any of the following circumstances were evident:

- Your household income now exceeded the threshold for intermediate housing application - currently this is £90,000
- You were a current home owner in the UK or abroad
- You had been caught sub-letting or attempting to sublet your intermediate property without prior permission from your landlord (rental or homeownership properties)
- You have previously submitted fraudulent documents as part of a previous application and had your account closed as a result
- You had an active CCJ (County Court Judgement)
- You were previously evicted due to anti-social behaviour 

How do I find out about new properties on the market?

Please visit the Property section of the website to search for and view new housing developments.

Unless otherwise requested, once you register your details will be given to the providers of housing schemes and they will then contact you directly. They will usually email or post you information about new properties that come on to the market.

If you are aware of an opportunity, you can contact Homes For Westminster who will contact the provider on your behalf, as long as you are eligible.