Going live and making properties available for prospective tenants to bid on is the last stage of the council’s move to Choice Based Lettings.

By ‘bid’ the council doesn’t mean any exchange of money – it simply means people can apply for a property by making an ‘expression of interest’. Both council and housing association properties will be advertised 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 the bid is placed 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 a person has a need for particular housing with adaptations or specialist housing support, they will not be expected to bid. The Council will contact them as normal when a suitable property becomes available. Anyone in this category will have a Household Type of Match.

Once logged in, people will only see properties that they are eligible for. They can also check their bid position and change their 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 that particular household.
• A person’s application is suspended as they have been shortlisted for another property.
• Their application has been cancelled as they no longer qualify.

Angus Council recommends logging into the site regularly to check the status of bids and the availability of properties. Bid positions will be shown under the “previous bids” heading. If a bid is successful, the Council will contact that person with a permanent offer of housing.

People should not contact the Council seeking the outcome of their bids.

People should familiarise themselves with any property before they bid, as bidding means they are willing to accept the property if it is offered to them. The Council will aim to show external and internal photographs of all properties, wherever possible, and give as much information about the property as possible.

Being flexible can help people to get housed. The choice-based letting system is designed to make the process as straightforward as possible and to house as many people as is possible. This won’t work if successful bidders refuse properties.

An applicant 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 a person has a priority banding because they are homeless and they refuse one reasonable offer of housing, their priority banding will be removed.

The chance of a successful bid depends on several factors. It is possible that people may wait a significant length of time for a bid to be successful or they may be successful the first time they bid.

When they bid for a property:

• The system will tell them their bid position for that property.
• Their position may change as other people bid for the same property after them.
• They will have the option to withdraw a bid before the bid cycle closes.

If a person is not able to bid, Angus Council can support them but first, they should see whether family members or friends can assist them. They can even nominate someone to bid on their behalf.

The council knows some applicants may not have easy access to the internet or may have other challenges that prevent them from bidding themselves. In such instances, the Council may be able to place bids on a person’s behalf or look at automatic bidding alternatives.

These would enable Homefinder to bid for properties based on the preferences the person chose when they joined the Housing Register. People should bear in mind that, if they refuse reasonable offers, their application could be suspended.