Bid

Bid

By “bid” we simply mean ‘apply for a property’.  Customers can bid for one property every week.  You can bid using:

• this website: www.southwarkhomesearch.org.uk
• a touchscreen kiosk in a council office
• our multi-lingual hotline (local call charges apply) 0845 270 0655
• by text on 0778 148 6526

TO BID YOU WILL NEED:

• your Homesearch registration number
• your date of birth or memorable number
• the reference number of the property you are bidding for

Properties are expected to attract bids from a lot of people.  You can find out your queue position when you make a bid. This will tell you how many bids have already been placed on the same property by customers with a higher priority than you. 

Check your bids' progress

As more customers bid, queue positions may change - you can go up or down the queue depending on the priority of other bidders.  Bids can be checked, withdrawn and transferred to different properties at any time during each bidding cycle using the website, a kiosk or the bidding hotline. This is a good way to increase your chances, especially near to the end of the bidding cycle when you can get a realistic idea of your final position and thus withdraw bids which are not doing well. There is no advantage to bidding too early in the bidding cycle, as it is not a first come first served system.

Refusing an offer

Only bid for properties you are genuinely interested in, which would be suitable for your needs. If you do bid for a property, and we offer it to you and you then refuse it, there is no penalty. If you refuse more than 10 properties within a certain period (i.e. 6 months) we may invite you to an interview to discuss your housing application further.

There are no penalties applied to your account if you do not bid every week. Likewise, you will not accrue any extra priority by bidding every week. Therefore, if you do not see a suitable property in a particular week, it is better not to bid at all than to bid and refuse properties which are not suitable many times. This is because it takes us longer to let properties when they are refused as it delays the process. It also means we may lose revenue as properties take longer to let.

If you wish to check out the area or property you have bid for prior to the viewing date, try to do this before the end of the bidding period. You will then be able to withdraw your bid if unsuitable and can either wait for the next bidding cycle or bid for another property.