From Friday 27 November you will be able to see available properties on our new Angus Homefinder website and bid for the home you want.
This is the last stage of our move to Choice Based Lettings.
By ‘bid’ we don’t mean any exchange of money – it simply means you can apply for a property by making an ‘expression of interest’. Both ours and housing association properties will go online each week.
The bidding cycle starts on a Friday morning and ends a week later – at midnight the following Friday. It doesn’t matter when you place your bid in that week-long period, as all bids will be ranked according to priority and date of application.
Not all properties will be advertised. For example, if you have a need for particular housing with adaptations or specialist housing support, you will not be expected to bid. We will contact you as normal when a suitable property becomes available. If you are in this category you will have a household type of Match.
How to bid
You can view and bid for properties on the Angus HomeFinder website.
Once you have logged in, you will only see properties that you can bid for. You can also check your bid position and change your bids at any time during the bidding cycle.
There may be some weeks when there are no properties for you to bid on and this could be because:
- there are no properties with the right number of bedrooms for your household.
- your application is suspended as you have been shortlisted for another property.
- your application has been cancelled as you no longer qualify.
We recommend logging into the site regularly to check the status of your bids and the availability of properties. Your bid position will show under the “previous bids” heading. If your bid is successful, we will contact you with a permanent offer of housing.
Please do not contact us to ask about the outcome of your bids.
Placing your bid
We ask that you familiarise yourself with any property before you bid, as bidding means you are willing to accept the property if it is offered to you. We aim to show photographs of all properties, inside and outside, wherever possible, and give you as much information about the property as we can.
Being flexible can help you to get housed. Our choice-based letting system is designed to make the process as straightforward as possible and to house as many people as we can. This won’t work if successful bidders refuse properties.
An application may be suspended from the housing register where two reasonable offers of housing are refused and the applicant will be unable to make any further bids for six months. If you have a priority banding because you are homeless and you refuse one reasonable offer of housing, your priority banding will be removed.
The chance of your bid succeeding
The chance of a successful bid depends on several factors. It is possible you may wait a significant length of time for a bid to be successful or you may be successful the first time you bid.
When you bid for a property:
- the system will tell you your bid position for that property.
- your position may change as other people bid for the same property after you.
- you will have the option to withdraw a bid before the bid cycle closes.
What if you can’t bid?
If you are not able to bid, we can support you, but first please see whether family members or friends might be able to help. You can even nominate someone to bid on your behalf.
We know some applicants may not be able to get on the internet or may have other challenges that prevent them from bidding. In such instances, we may be able to place bids on your behalf or look at automatic bidding alternatives. These would enable Homefinder to bid for properties based on the preferences you chose when you joined the Housing Register.
Please bear in mind, if you refuse reasonable offers, your application could be suspended.
You can get more information and advice at the Angus HomeFinder website.
Angus Council Housing News 