Housing applications and choice based lettings questions and answers

A bidding cycle runs from 10.00am on Thursday to midnight the following Tuesday. You will not be able to make a bid for a property after midnight on a Tuesday. There is a bidding cycle every week of the year, except for one week over the Christmas period.

We use Wednesdays for administration. Then a new cycle of bidding, for a new batch of properties, begins at 10.00am the following day.

You can look for any new properties advertised on the Swindon Borough Council website. If there are no properties that you can see when you click on ‘Place a bid’, this is because there are no properties that you are eligible for in the cycle.

This is a unique number given to each advertised property; this is not the address or actual house number of the property.

If there are no properties coming up on your screen, usually this means there are not any properties that match what you are eligible for. Just in case, it is recommended to refresh the page for good measure.

The adverts will tell you the landlord, location, bedroom size, rent and other features of the property. Where available a photograph of the property or a similar house type will be provided and you will be able to access information about the local area and facilities. The advert will also tell you if there are any special requirements that the applicant must meet, such as age requirements, and which will be given priority for the property. It also tells you the number of bedrooms that applicants applying for the property need to be entitled to. If your bedroom entitlement is different to this you will not be able to bid for that property.

You can express your interest or bid, as it is also known, in the following ways:

• Online through our website
• Visiting a library and using their computers
• Via customer services at Wat Tyler House

Yes we can, however we advise if you have any family or friends who have a computer that they bid for you. If you are struggling with ways to bid as advised above, we can place a bid on your behalf. Contact our Call Centre on 01793 445503 and request to speak to the Lettings Customer Service team and we can work with you to sort your bidding.

You will be able to have only one active bid per advertising cycle. However, you can change a bid for a property as many times as you like. Kindly ensure you only bid for an area you wish to live in.

Properties will be advertised from Thursday morning at 10:00am and you will be able to register your interest in a property up until midnight the following Tuesday.

Once the closing date for bids has passed, a shortlist of interested applicants is drawn up. The shortlist is in order of eligibility according to the criteria stated in the advert details for that property. If you are successful for a property, you will hear from the Landlord of the property you bid for, the Council or its Housing Association partner Lettings Team.

We cannot disclose what bidding position you are in.

To view, check out the list of Housing associations.

If you are shortlisted for a property, you will not be allowed to bid for other properties until you have either accepted or refused the property that you have been shortlisted for. If you want to refuse the property you have bid for, kindly complete a refusal form and send it through either My Account or to our Housing email address housing@swindon.gov.uk.

You can be unsuccessful for a property for the following reasons:

• You owe rent or have other housing related debts
• You are a Council or Housing Association tenant and legal action has been taken against you because you have broken your tenancy conditions
• You have not provided the required documentary evidence to support your application by the date given
• Your circumstances have changed and this results in a change in your banding or application date
• You have provided incorrect or misleading information, which has resulted in your application being awarded a higher priority than it deserves

You would need to have a valid reason to refuse a property. A Senior Officer will make this decision based on information provided.

If you have bid on a Housing Association property and want to refuse it, your application will be immediately closed and you will need to complete a refusal form within 3 months, which you will need to send via My Account or via the Housing email address: housing@swindon.gov.uk.

If the Senior Officer does not think your reason is valid, your application will be cancelled and you will need to complete a new application with a new banding date.

In some cases, a property is not advertised as it has to be directly matched to an applicant. These are often emergency cases or sometimes adapted properties.

You will normally have to provide your own carpets and appliances. However, these are sometimes supplied in the Sheltered Housing Schemes. Property adverts will tell you if carpets and appliances are available.