With the homemove scheme instead of the council allocating you a home, you look for your own home using this website or the Homemove magazine.
There are five steps for you to follow in choosing your new home:
Step 1 – Membership
To become a member of Homemove you must register as a homeseeker or transfer applicant at one of the participating councils or housing associations. Once a member, you will be given a Homemove number so you can make bids.
You may not be eligible to be on the housing register. Your local council can give you further advice on this. (Please contact us to get more information from your local council).
Step 2 – Registration
When your council or housing association has accepted you onto their register, Homemove will write to you to give you your Homemove number. The letter will also tell you which band you are in (band A, B, C or D), your priority date (the date you were placed in your band) and the number of bedrooms you are eligible for.
See our priority bands page for details of how the priority band and date system works.
You must keep your local council or housing association informed about any changes in your circumstances - this means address and phone number, medical conditions, household size or anthing else that affects your housing situation. This is very important as it could result in changing your band or your eligibility for certain properties. If you don't inform them of changes then this could put you in a position where an offer of accommodation is made and then withdrawn.
Step 3 – Choosing
All the available properties are advertised each fortnight on this website, and in a magazine called Homemove in all areas except Mid Sussex.
The adverts give you information about each property to help you decide which is suitable for you. 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. They also appear like this if you receive a My Homemove property list in Mid Sussex.
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 magazine (or the Mid Sussex Property List) is available.
Properties will be advertised every other Friday and you have until 2pm the following Wednesday to bid. This is the bidding cycle. You can bid on a maximum of three properties in each cycle.
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
homemove is usually published every other Friday and your bids must reach us by 2pm the following Wednesday. For further information on bidding, see our
How to bid page.
Step 4 - Offer
When bidding closes Homemove puts the bids for each property in order - by band, local connection and priority date - to make shortlists of eligible applicants for each property.
If you come top of a shortlist you will usually be contacted within a week of bidding closing.
Your council or housing association will allocate from the list after doing further eligibility checks. If your name is at the top of the shortlist you will normally be invited to view the property. If you refuse this property, the next person on the shortlist will be invited to view it.
You do not automatically get penalised for refusing a property you have bid for. However, your priority may be reviewed if you refuse several properties and you are in a high priority band (band A). Some types of applicants - for example homeless applicants - have a limited time to bid; but you will be informed when you register if this applies to you.
Some landlords invite more than one applicant to view a property at the same time, which helps to speed up the lettings process. The property is still always offered to the applicant with the highest priority who attends the viewing.
If you are made an offer you will not be shortlisted for another property until you have made a decision to refuse the other offer.
Step 5 – Feedback
Every property appears in the feedback section at the end of your council's part of the magazine once it has been let. You can also get details of your past bids on the feedback page once you have logged into the bidding section on this website.
If you are unsuccessful with a bid, you can use the feedback to help you understand why (but you'll need to remember the three-digit advert reference number). It tells you how many people bid for the property, as well as the band and priority date of the successful bidder. The priority date shows you how long the successfull bidder has been waiting.
You may wish to use the feedback information to help you decide how to bid in future. For example, you could bid for properties of different types, in areas that attract fewer bidders, or in areas where people in lower bands have been housed. You will see that in some cases band C and D applicants are almost never offered some property types in certain areas. If you are in one of these bands you may wish to consider other housing options.
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.