If you believe you are in need of affordable housing, or just not sure, you should register on Devon Home Choice by visiting www.devonhomechoice.com or by contacting your Local Authority Devon Home Choice office on 01395 519982 . You can also visit the EDDC offices at Sidmouth or Exmouth.

Devon Home Choice is the choice based lettings system for the allocation of affordable housing across Devon. All affordable rented homes are advertised on Devon Home Choice and those households who are registered on the system are eligible to bid for those homes.

Your application will be assessed by Devon Home Choice staff at your Local Authority and you will either be accepted onto the register or your application will be rejected. If your application is rejected, you will receive a clear explanation from Devon Home Choice staff as to why. If you are accepted onto the register, you will be given a Banding between A and D which indicates your level of housing need.

A = Emergency need, B = High need, C = Medium Need, D= Low Need, E= No need

If you are assessed as Band E you will still be included on the register and will be able to bid although you have been assessed as having no housing need. This category relates to those who are housed adequately but may be struggling to pay rent or have an insecure tenancy.

You are eligible to be included on the Devon Home Choice register if you are in housing need. This means that you are living in unsuitable accommodation and cannot meet your housing needs without assistance. Unsuitable accommodation covers a number of criteria – i.e. if you are living in overcrowded accommodation, if you are living in a property that is too large for your current needs, if your current property is in poor condition, if you have specific medical or mobility needs that make your current property unsuitable or if you are living in a short term insecure private let and are in danger of becoming homeless.

House prices are so high in Devon that you could be earning an average household income and still be eligible for affordable housing.  If you are unsure it is always worth registering with Devon Home Choice to check. 

In order to be eligible for affordable housing in rural communities you need a local connection to the Parish in which you wish to live.

This varies between Local Authorities –East Devon District Council have the following local connection criteria:

Local connection means one or more of the following connections in priority order in respect of parishes or the parish grouping:

1. i)    persons who have been permanently resident therein for a continuous period of three years out of the five years immediately prior to the Affordable Dwelling being offered to them; or
2. ii)   being formerly permanently resident therein for a continuous period of five years at some time in the past

iii)  having his or her place of permanent work (normally regarded as 16 hours or more a week and not including seasonal employment) therein for a continuous period of at least twelve (12) months immediately prior to being offered the Affordable Dwelling;

1. iv) persons who can demonstrate a close family connection to the District in that the person’s mother, father, son, daughter or sibling has been permanently resident therein for a continuous period of five years immediately prior to the Affordable Dwelling being offered to them and where there is independent evidence of a caring dependency relationship.

All properties are advertised on Devon Home Choice between 12:00am on Wednesday morning to 11:59pm on the following Monday night. No homes are advertised on a Tuesday. Properties are only advertised for 6 days and are not re-advertised unless they are not let after the first attempt.

New developments are also publicised by the Local Authority, the Housing Association and the Parish Council notice boards in the months leading up to their allocation. This is to make everyone in the community aware that the homes are coming up for allocation and to ensure that all of the eligible households are registered with Devon Home Choice and know when to bid for the homes.

When you register with Devon Home Choice you are given a unique reference number and password. You can log on using these details and can search for suitable properties.  You are also told what size property you qualify for (number of bedrooms) and can only bid for properties that are the relevant size. If there is a local connection requirement you will be told in the advert.

When the bidding process ends, all bids are ranked electronically by Banding and then by length of time that the household has been on that particular Band. The applicant who has come at the top of the list is contacted and if the property is suitable for their needs they are invited to view the home. If they accept the home, the process ends. If not, the second applicant on the list is contacted and so on until the property is let. In the case of rural settlements of 3,000 or less residents, the local connection will be more important than the banding so someone who lives in the village and is on a Band D will be higher on the list than someone with no local connection who is on a Band B.