a) You didn’t bid for the property (take advice from your housing officer on how to bid on Locata).

b) Your bid was received after the deadline (your housing officer can advise you as to how to make sure this does not happen in future)).

c) You bid for more than 3 properties in that week (the system ).

will automatically make your extra bids ineligible) d) The property advert specified a particular minimum and maximum person family and yours did not fit (e.g. maximum 3 persons and you have 4 in your family)).

e) The property advert stated that priority would be given to people with mobility problems because of its adaptations, and you are not registered with a mobility level (speak to your housing officer if you think that your case should have been registered with a mobility level that would match you to one of these properties)).

f) You have been registered with a mobility level and bid for a property which we consider unsuitable for someone with that mobility level (e.g. you are in mobility group 3 “can only manage one or two steps” and have bid for an upper floor flat without a lift) ).

g) The property belongs to a housing association whose advert stated that priority would be given to their own tenants).

h) The property was reserved for transferring tenants whereas you are a homeseeker).

i) The property has 4 bedrooms and you are registered for a maximum of 3 (remember, you can bid for fewer bedrooms than you need but not for more).

j) We have been unable to verify your circumstances (i.e. to check that we have given you the correct priority banding – e.g. you are a tenant with rent arrears and have been asked to come in and discuss them, or we have scheduled you for a home visit and have been unable to make contact with you).

If you are in the top 5 or 10 eligible bidders for a property you will receive a letter from the landlord inviting you to view it on a certain date and time. If you have any reason to think you might not receive this letter (e.g. your address has changed and you have not informed your housing officer, or you are staying temporarily with a relative or friend) you need to contact your housing officer, who should also be able to confirm your actual position on the list and give you useful bidding advice.

If your bid is low down all the lists you bid on you will not hear from anyone – with 22,500 bids per week we do not have the resources to write to every individual bidder to tell them their positions. However, you can check on the Locata website your position in the queue for any of the properties you bid for.

Shortlisting is the process allocations officers go through when they look at their computer screen to see the list of bidders for a property. The list is in order by band and priority date and the allocation officer starts at the top of the list and offers the property to the first bidder, unless there is some reason why they should not – for example if they are informed that the person has high rent arrears, or the property advert specified the family should have at least 2 children and they only have 1.

Most Locata partners will then go on to offer a viewing of the property to 4 or more other people going down the list consecutively.

There is no set time. We advertise properties at the earliest possible stage when we are pretty sure they are going to become available. Sometimes you will be notified within a few days of the bidding closing, in cases where a property is ready to view and we have already scheduled a viewing. At other times there may be a delay, for example where an outgoing tenant has given notice and stays longer than they expected, or where an inspection has shown that the property will require substantial works doing to it before it can be re-let. The delay on viewing newly built properties can be substantial.

You can expect to receive a letter from the landlord inviting you to view the property on a certain date and time if you are in the top 5 or 10 eligible bidders. If you have any reason to think you might not receive this letter (e.g. your address has changed and you have not informed your housing officer, or you are staying temporarily with a relative or friend) you need to contact your housing officer, who should also be able to confirm your actual position on the list and give you useful bidding advice.

We appreciate any information from the public about our properties and welcome being told of an empty property that we may not have been aware of. However, one of the aims of Locata is to have a fair allocations system that is transparent to all its members. We try to avoid allocating any properties outside the Locata system. When we do so it is for reasons of urgency and other special reasons which have nothing to do with whether particular customers are interested in particular properties. You will have the opportunity to bid for that property alongside all our other Locata members when it is advertised.

If you don’t see it advertised it is probably because:-

a) It wasn’t empty in the first place – the tenant returned to it, or

b) It’s not a council-owned property – it was previously acquired under the Right to Buy laws, or

c) It required major works and/or was earmarked for adaptations for a wheelchair user, and this work will take some time to complete.

Your band is the main priority tool, so if you are in band C or D (Hounslow 3 or 4) there is always the danger that you will be overtaken by band A*, A and B (Hounslow 1 or 2) members. There are always more properties than there are band A*, A and B members, so there are always opportunities for band C members, but their wait will be longer. It depends on who bids for (and decides to accept) the particular property you are interested in and their band and date relative to you.

The law requires councils and housing associations to let their homes (“social rented housing”) to the people who are in the most housing need. The Locata scheme is different for different partners, but generally it closely follows the legal definition of housing need, categorising those in overriding need in the highest band. For most councils the highest band is A (Harrow’s is A*, Hounslow’s is 1). Those in very high need are placed in the second band (usually B, Harrow A, Hounslow 2) and those with a particular need in the third band (usually band C, Harrow band B or C, Hounslow band 3).

Housing associations advertise up to 25% of their vacant properties (those to which the council does not have nomination rights) on their own section of Locata, and give priority to their own tenants for these properties. If you are not one of that association’s tenants (or you are their tenant but are registered only with your local authority) your bid stands much less chance of success.

However, in Brent, Harrow and Hillingdon* our “handshake” initiative gives residents in the borough where the housing association property is located a higher priority than previously. Priority in these cases is by band, so the housing association’s tenants in band A in date order get priority, followed by other borough residents (both council and other housing associations’ tenants) in band A in date order, through B, C and D in the same way. This means that no longer will band C or D association tenants be successful in preference to band A and B council tenants in their own borough.

*NB: Ealing and Hounslow are not taking part in “Handshake”.

The system shows you only those properties you are eligible for. The basic matches (controlled by the Locata system and strictly applied) are to your:-

a) bed size (only showing the maximum number of bedrooms you are eligible for)

b) housing list (e.g. homeseekers don’t get to bid for transfer-only lists)

c) minimum and maximum occupants (e.g. you can’t bid for a 2 bedroom 3 person unit if you are a 2 bedroom 4 person family)

d) partner (e.g. if you are registered with Brent you can’t bid in Ealing).

NB: Cross partner advertising is temporarily suspended following updates to our partners’ allocations schemes. We hope to reinstate this shortly.

However there can be other matches controlled by partners where policies differ, such as mobility, age restrictions and sheltered approval, and these are not applied consistently or strictly through the eligibility on the website.