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Apply for a Disabled Facilities Grant

You can apply for a grant if you’re:

  • an owner-occupier
  • a disabled tenant and your landlord gives permission for alterations
  • an owner applying on behalf of a disabled resident

Grants for Council tenants

If you're a council tenant and you require adaptations to be made to your property, please contact us.

If you live in Bournemouth

If you live in Poole:

For Adults

Our adult social care team will assess your application to see whether you qualify. If you’re disabled, they may carry out a test to identify what help you need and how much grant you’re eligible for. Contact our Adult Social Care Contact Centre on 01202 123 654.

For Children

Contact the Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub 01202 127 773 or cypl.chadbso@bcpcouncil.gov.uk to arrange for one of their occupational therapists to visit you to assess your needs or those of your child.

After the home assessment

Once the OT has visited your property and made an assessment, the following will happen:

  • the OT will make recommendations to our Housing and Community Services department for the adaptation works that are needed
  • your OT may provide you with a provisional grant enquiry form and an information pack which explains the grant process. The information you provide in the enquiry form will be used to carry out a means test which will establish whether you have a financial contribution to make towards any grant
  • if you’re eligible for assistance, someone from our housing and community services team will visit your property to discuss which of the adaptation works are suitable for grant aid
  • after the visit, you’ll be given a schedule of eligible works so that you can obtain estimates for the works
  • when you have your estimates for the work, they need to be submitted to us together with the appropriate government application form
  • if you need assistance with the grant application process, our adaptations officer can help you.

Conditions of the DFG

Where a grant application is made by the owner of the property and a grant is approved for more than £5,000, a local land charge will be registered against them. The owner will be required to repay the part of the grant that exceeds £5,000 (up to £10,000), if the property is sold or transferred within 10 years.

Advisory list of contractors

To help applicants for a DFG, we’ve put together a list of contractors, but there’s no obligation for you to use someone from the list.

Our advisory list of contractors is based around our Housing and Community Services’ robust code of practice.

All contractors on the advisory list have signed up to a code of conduct which details the level of service you can expect from them, from their initial visit through to the completion of the works.

We need two estimates for the works that the grant is paying for. We do not provide a warranty for the contractor’s work, as this should be covered through their own warranty scheme.

Further information

Download our factsheet which has a flowchart showing the ten steps to completing your adaptation, plus frequently asked questions. A flowchart for children and young people is also available.

We've also a separate factsheet listing the answers to frequently asked questions about the DFG application process.

The Department for Communities and Local Government has produced their own Disabled Facilities Grant Information Leaflet.

Read our Disabled Facilities Grants (DFG) Policy.

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