If we can offer you a home, things can happen very quickly so it's important that you are ready.
Are you ready? Here's a list of things you need to do:
Make sure you have one week or one month's rent saved up as you'll need to pay this in advance when you sign the tenancy. This includes everyone, it doesn't matter if you are working or on benefits.
Your tenancy will start on the day you complete the sign up forms and you will be charged rent from the following day. So if your tenancy starts on Wednesday rent will be paid daily for Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then rent will be paid weekly.
If you are on benefits make sure that the housing benefit you get covers your rent, or that you will be able to afford to cover the difference.
If you are signing a new tenancy then your housing benefit (or housing element of Universal Credit) will be based on the Local Housing Allowance from 2019, and may not fully cover your rent. Make sure you save some money to cover any difference to avoid arrears.
Find out more about benefits and the changes to benefits on the Wolverhampton Homes money advice webpages.
Not sure if you can afford to pay your rent? Use this budget planner
You will also need to save up to make sure you can afford to buy furniture and essential items for your new home. When you are shopping for your kitchen appliances make sure you check out Right Price Electricals, they offer great discounts on goods as well as low cost finance.
We make sure homes to be let are clean, safe, secure and in reasonable repair but they are empty, so you will need to buy furniture, carpets and curtains and some may need to be decorated. Find out more about the Wolverhampton Homes Lettable Standard. (Other housing providers will have their own lettable standards.
If you haven't already got an account with a bank, building society or credit union, you will need to open one. This is so that you can set up a Direct Debit for your rent payments. Find out more about bank accounts and budget accounts from Wolverhampton City Credit Union which help you manage all your bills.
Even if you are expecting to have help with your rent from benefits you will need a bank account. Read more about Universal Credit.
As you're reading this you probably already have an email address, but if you haven't - you'll need to set one up. Once you become a tenant you can use all our online services such as repairs reporting and rent account management but you'll need an email address to do this.
You'll need to provide ID for everyone in your household who is looking to move, and proof of where you are living at the moment. Get all of these documents ready.
ID:
We will need two proofs for each person moving, select from the following:
Residence:
We need one proof for each adult, select from the following:
Proof of circumstances:
This will depend on your circumstances and you will be told what is required, it could include:
If you fail to produce your ID and the evidence we need within a reasonable period (48 hours), you will be bypassed and we will contact the next customer on the shortlist. So make sure you have everything ready.
Before we can make you an offer, you'll need to fill in our pre-offer checklist.
We recommend that you download it as soon as possible and start filling it in so you're all set.
If we can offer you a home, you'll need to move in straight away.
So if you're not ready to move please don't bid.
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