A housing association like Ryedale Housing or Yorkshire Metropolitan Housing is a not-for-profit organisation. Its main business is providing affordable homes to rent. Any money left over from its work is ploughed back into building or buying new homes, and improving its existing properties and services.

Anyone can apply to be housed by us. But our duty is to house those who most need it. To make sure this happens fairly, we use a points system to see whether you qualify to go on our waiting list. If we can’t accept you onto our waiting list we will explain why and you will have the right to appeal against the decision.

First check out details of homes currently available for rent on our Home Finder. Next tell us which properties you are interested in. You can do this online using the Home Finder or by contacting any of our offices.

 View the Home Finder

That’s difficult to answer. It depends on your position on the waiting list – in other words how much you need a house – and it depends on a suitable property becoming empty and how many other people are interested in it. You can cut the waiting time by being prepared to live in a number of different types of home in a wider area or in more areas. That way the chance of a suitable property becoming vacant will be higher.

Again, this is a difficult question. We get new applications to join our waiting list every day. And because we offer homes to people on the basis of their housing need your position on the list will probably move – especially if your circumstances change because of your health, your income or your children.

Yes, if you are eligible to use our furniture rental services. Yorkshire Housing Group (YHG) has a furniture rental service which can provide pretty well everything most homes need, including carpets. Or, if it’s just a single item of furniture or a couple of kitchen appliances we can help with them. You pay for any items with an extra charge on your rent. This will be paid for by housing benefit if you get it.

Vist our Renting Furniture & Appliances page for more information.

Yes. As a tenant of a housing association you can swap home with another tenant either of the same association, another housing association, or a local authority or council.

Rents depend on the type and location of each property and the facilities you’ll be able to use. Check out sample rents on Home Finder.

 View the Home Finder

You might be able to claim housing benefit to help with the rent. If we offer you a home we can find out you if you will qualify for it and we’ll work out how much rent you will have to pay.

View more information about Rents and Benefits Advice

If you get housing benefit the council will pay your rent directly to the association. But if your benefit has not been paid for any reason, your rent account will show that you’re in arrears. This might be why you’ve had this letter. If we write to you about arrears, please contact us right away so we can help sort things out.

This could be because your rent is due weekly, so each week another week's rent is added to your account. If you pay at the end of the month rather than the beginning, your account will show arrears for three out of four weeks. To avoid this you need to pay in advance. If you can’t do this, just pay a little extra each month until you are in front. Your housing officer will be happy to help with this.

Housing benefit is usually paid four weeks in arrears and will show on your account during the fifth week. This means that your rent account will always appear to be at least one week in arrears. However, many of our tenants have housing benefit paid in this way so we ignore any arrears which arise just because of the way housing benefit is paid.

Ring our 24/7 repairs helpdesk on 0845 60 60 665.

Send us your repair requests online using our Report a Repair page.

Please tell us. We take our customers’ views very seriously and we will always try to solve any problems you may have. We have a Complaints Policy and Procedure to help us deal with all complaints fairly.

If you'd like to make a complaint, please vist our Complaints, Compliments and Suggestions page where you can download a leaflet or use our online form.