Council housing in Barnet: the register, bidding, and help if you are at risk of losing your home

Barnet, like every London borough, has far more households wanting social housing than homes to allocate. That reality sits behind everything below, and no guide can change it. What a guide can do is make sure nobody loses a right because they did not know it existed or acted too late.

The register, and what joining it does

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Barnet keeps a housing register of households qualifying for social housing. Eligibility turns on immigration status, a local connection through residence or work, and income and savings thresholds. Meeting them puts you on the list; it does not allocate you a home.

Applicants are placed in priority bands. Higher bands go to households with the most acute need — statutory homelessness, severe overcrowding, a medical condition made worse by the current home, or a need to move on welfare grounds. Waiting time orders applicants within a band, but it does not lift anyone between bands.

That is the single most misunderstood part of the system. Ten years in a low band can be overtaken by a household placed in a high band last month. If your circumstances change — a new diagnosis, a new child, a worsening of conditions at home — tell the council and ask for your banding to be reviewed.

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Bidding

Available properties are advertised and applicants bid for the ones they want. Bidding costs nothing and does not involve money; it is an expression of interest. The property goes to the eligible bidder in the highest band, and within that band to whoever has waited longest.

Bid consistently, and bid for properties you would genuinely accept. Refusing offers you bid for can have consequences for your application.

If you are at risk of losing your home

This is where timing matters most. Under the Homelessness Reduction Act, a council must take reasonable steps to help anyone who is homeless or threatened with homelessness within 56 days. That is a duty triggered by approaching them, and it is triggered long before the day the bailiffs arrive.

People routinely wait, believing nothing can be done until they are actually evicted. The opposite is true: the earlier the council is involved, the more options exist — negotiating with a landlord, help with a deposit elsewhere, or mediation with family.

If you receive a section 21 notice, you do not have to leave on the date it specifies. A landlord must go to court for a possession order and then to bailiffs for eviction, which takes months. Leaving voluntarily on the notice date can also complicate a homelessness application. Take advice before you go.

Help with paying

Housing costs for people on low incomes are met through Universal Credit for most new claims, with Housing Benefit still applying in some circumstances including pension age and certain supported housing.

Where that award does not cover the rent, Discretionary Housing Payments are a separate fund the council can award on top. They are cash-limited and applied for, not automatic, and they are significantly under-claimed. If there is a gap between your housing award and your rent, apply.

Where to get independent advice

Shelter and Citizens Advice both give free, independent housing advice and will act for you in dealing with a council or landlord. Independent advice is worth having early, particularly if you disagree with a banding decision or a homelessness decision — both carry review rights with time limits attached.