Offers

All bids received will be put in priority order to produce a shortlist of eligible applicants for each property advertised. We use your housing needs band and priority date to put these in order.

If you are at the top of the shortlist you will normally be invited to view the property unless there are reasons why we are unable to do this, for example, you have rent arrears or the council is taking legal action against you for breaching a tenancy condition. If we are unable to offer the property to the person at the top of the shortlist, we will move to the next person and so on.

If you decide to refuse the property, it will be offered to the next person on the shortlist. You will not normally be penalised for refusing a property and will continue to be able to bid for properties advertised. However, if you have had a full homeless duty accepted you should talk to the person dealing with your case before refusing any properties because it may end the homeless duty and you may be asked to leave any temporary accommodation provided. Other people in Band A will also have their priority reviewed if they refuse 3 reasonable offers.

If you are offered a property, you will not be shortlisted for other properties until you have decided to either accept or refuse the offer.

You may have to pay some rent in advance when you sign the tenancy for a property. The information about how much this is likely to be should be in the advert. The amount varies depending on the landlord of the property - some don't ask for any rent in advance but you may be asked to pay anywhere between 1 week & 1 month in advance.

If you are worried about the amount because you have a low income or receive benefits, you can contact the landlord to discuss your circumstances and get advice. It is usual for landlords to carry out an affordability assessment to see what you can afford to pay and whether you can afford the rent on the property.

Because it is now more common for landlords to ask for rent in advance, you will need to prepare yourself for this. If at all possible, you should save as much as can while you are bidding for properties so that you will not have to find the whole amount for the rent in advance if you are offered a property. Home-Link landlords would strongly advise you not to borrow money to pay the rent in advance, especially not from lenders with high rates of interest such as payday loans.