Home-Options gives more choice about where you want to live. In the past your Council or landlord decided where and when you would be offered a home. Now you will have the chance to choose.
There are five steps for you to follow in choosing your new home:
Step 1 – Membership
You are automatically a member of Home-Options if you are an existing tenant of any of the participating councils or housing associations listed on the Derbyshire Dales, High Peak or Amber Valley contacts page and have registered for a transfer, or you are a homeseeker registered on the Housing Register.
You may not be eligible to be on the housing register; the council can give you further advice on this.
Step 2 – Registration
Once the council has accepted you onto the register, Home-Options will write to you to give you a reference number and will tell you which band (A, B, C or D) you have been placed in and your priority date. See Priority Bands details of how the band and date system works.
You MUST keep Home-Options informed of any changes to your household, medical condition or housing situation.
This is very important as it could result in changes to your band, or your eligibility for certain homes. See Priority Bands for details of how the band and date system works.
Step 3 – Choosing
Available properties are advertised on this website or on the Home-Options property list. The adverts give you information about each property available for letting.
You can pick up a free copy of the Home-Options property list from any of the participating councils or housing association offices and public libraries.
You can bid using any one of these four ways:
- On this website by logging in with your Home-Options reference number and password by clicking here on the Log In.
- By Coupon – We send blank coupons direct to you with your registration pack. Each bid coupon will have your name and Home-Options reference number printed on it. This is your individual number so do not give your coupon to anyone else see Coupon Bidding for instructions on how to complete your coupon.
You can request more coupons by ticking the request box on the coupon when you need to or by going to ordering through this website once you have Logged In.
- By Telephone – Call 0845 203 1888 and follow the instructions. See Telephone Bidding for instructions on making your bid by telephone.
- By Text – Send a text message to 07781 472726 see Text Bidding for instructions on making your bids by text).
The Home-Options property list will be available every other Wednesday. Your bids must reach us by 4.30pm the following Tuesday.
Step 4 – Offer
Home-Options puts the bids received for each advertised property in priority order to produce a list of eligible applicants for each property, The Landlord of each property allocates from the list after some 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 the property, the next person on the ‘priority list’ will be invited to view the property.
We will not automatically defer your application if you refuse properties you have chosen. However, we may review your priority if you refuse several properties and you are in a high priority band.
We may invite more than one applicant to view the property 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 that attends the viewing.
Step 5 – Feedback
All properties are listed in the Feedback Report in the Home-Options property list once they have been let.
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.
It is not possible to notify you individually when your bids have been unsuccessful.
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 who was on the list may be invited to view some time after the closing date.
If you are made an offer you will not be short-listed 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 in the Home-Options team to help you.