Council Tax and business rates phone lines

The telephone service for Council Tax and business rates will be unavailable on Friday 4 October. You can still contact us online to tell us of any changes in circumstances, make a payment arrangement or make a payment. Our telephone service will resume on Monday 7 October.

Worried about becoming homeless

If you are homeless or worried about becoming homeless we can help. Let us know and we will discuss your situation and needs with you.

Call us at Housing Options on 01332 888777.

When you contact us:

your situation will be assessed under the Homelessness Reduction Act 2018
we may arrange for you to come and see a homelessness advisor for a homeless assessment or arrange a home visit. Shelter's website has information about homeless assessments.
you will need to provide information about your circumstances
if it is determined that you are at risk of homelessness we will give you a personalised housing plan.

What counts as homelessness?

You can be homeless even if you have somewhere to live. Further information about what homelessness is can be found on Shelter.

Temporary accommodation

If you are homeless we might provide you with temporary accommodation whilst we look at your homeless application. This will depend on your personal circumstances.

Information about emergency housing from the council can be found on Shelter's website.

Find a home with a private landlord

Find out more information in our section Find a home with a private landlord

Referrals to another authority

If you are homeless but you do not have a local connection to Derby we may refer you to the local authority where you do have a connection.

Find out information about local connection on Shelter's website.

Further help - main housing duty

If you are still homeless after 56 days we will decide if we have a main housing duty

This is only owed to people in certain situations.

To qualify for the main housing duty all the following five criteria must apply:

you need to be eligible for help
you need to be homeless
you need to be in priority need
you need to have become homeless through no fault of your own
you need to have a local connection to Derby.

The main housing duty is a duty to provide suitable temporary accommodation until such time as the duty is ended, either by an offer of settled accommodation or for another specified reason.