With the homemove scheme instead of the council allocating you a home, you look for your own home using this website or the homemove freesheet.

There are five steps for you to follow in choosing your new home:

Step 1 – Membership

Once registered as a homeseeker or a transfer applicant at any of the participating councils or housing associations you will be given a homemove number. This means you are a member of homemove, and can use your homemove number to make bids for properties advertised in the section of the homemove magazine for the area in which you are registered.

You may not be eligible to be on the housing register; your council can give you further advice on this. (Please click on contact us to get more information from your local council).

Step 2 – Registration

Once your council or housing association has accepted you onto their register, homemove will write to you to give you a homemove number and will tell you what band (A, B, C or D) you have been placed in and your priority date. See our priority bands page for details of how the priority band and date system works.

You must keep your housing department informed of any changes to your household, medical condition or housing situation. If you don't inform them of these changes then this could result in an offer of accommodation being withdrawn. This is very important as it could result in changing your band, or your eligibility for certain homes.

Step 3 – Choosing

Available properties are advertised on this website and in the homemove magazine. The adverts give you information about each property available for letting.

In the magazine they are divided up into sections for each council's area. You are only eligible to bid for properties advertised in the section for your area (depending on which housing register you have been accepted onto) or properties that have been advertised 'cross boundary'. In the magazine there is a separate Cross Boundary section at the back. This is where adverts go if the local authorities they are in decide to open the bidding up to homemove members registered elsewhere. If you're biding on the website they will just appear in the list of properties you are eligible for, if they match your assessed need.

You can pick up a free copy of homemove from various places, including council offices and public libraries – go to our freesheet pick-up points page for a list of all the places where the freesheet is available.

Once you have logged in to our bidding section or got your copy of homemove, you will be able to ‘bid’ for a maximum of three properties in each edition.

You can bid using any one of these four ways:

• Logging in to the bidding section of this website
• By coupon - we send blank coupons direct to you with your registration pack. Each bid coupon will have your name and homemove number printed on it. This is your individual number so do not give your coupon to anyone else. You can request more coupons by ticking the request box on the coupon when you need to, or by logging-in to the bidding section to order more coupons online.
• By telephone - call 0906 294 2036 and follow the instructions
• By text - text 07781 472726

Step 4 - Offer

Homemove puts the bids received for each property advertised in priority order to produce a list of eligible applicants for each property.

Your council's or housing association's allocations team will allocate from the list after doing further eligibility checks. If your name is at the top of the priority list, you will normally be invited to view the property.

If you refuse this property, the next person on the ‘priority list’ will be invited to view the property. Your priority may be reviewed if you refuse several properties and you are in a high priority band and need to move urgently. Some categories of applicant have a limited time to bid; you will be informed when you register if this applies to you.

Many landlords invite more than one applicant to view the properties at the same time. This helps to speed up the lettings process, although the property is always offered to the applicant with the highest priority who attends the viewing.

Step 5 – Feedback

All properties are listed on the ‘Feedback’ section at the bottom of your council's section in the homemove magazine once they have been let. You can also view feedback relating to your own bids on this website.

The feedback tells you how many people bid for each property, as well as the band and registration date of the successful bidder. This helps you to see how long the successful bidders have been waiting and which types of property are most popular.

It is not possible to notify you individually when your bids have been unsuccessful.

You can also get details of your past bids on the feedback page once you have logged into the bidding section.

People who have come top of a shortlist are usually contacted within a week of the bid closing. However, a lot of properties are advertised some time before they are ready for occupation.

If a person who was top of the list refuses, the next person on the list may be invited to view some time after the closing date.

If you are made an offer, you will not be shortlisted for other homes until you have made a decision either to accept or refuse the offer.

If you have questions about how the scheme applies to you or about bidding for properties, there are fully trained staff at your local council or housing association to help you and interpreters can be provided if you make an appointment.

Occasionally, the council may need to withdraw advertised properties from the homemove scheme. This could happen for a variety of reasons, for example the existing tenant decided not to move, or the property needs unforeseen repairs. If this happens to a property you have bid for then we apologise for the inconvenience caused.