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Help Guides

 

      Homesearch Video Library

 

Applicant's guide to Homesearch

Low Cost Homeownership video guide

At risk of homelessness? Watch our guide here

Watch our guide on 'how to how to place a bid' here

Want to set up property alerts? Watch our guide here

For tips on the bidding feedback page, watch our video here

Have you heard about Homeswapper? watch our video here

 

 

 

Help Guides

Homesearch Handbook

Monmouthshire County Council: Joint Allocations Policy

Medical/ Welfare - Acceptable Supporting Evidence

Applicant's Guide to Rural Allocations Policy

Applicant's Guite to a Local Lettings Plan

Domestic Abuse

Need an adapted or accessible home?

Cost of Living: Support and advice

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

Enter your log in details here. You will only be able to log in if you have completed the Housing Register Application Form.
All household members must provide their NI number when registering.

All household members over the age of 18 can only be on one housing application at a given time. If you are already on another housing application then you will not be able to continue.

If this is not the case, and you haven’t already applied, but the system does not allow your NI number then please email us with proof of your NI number and a member of the team will look into this for you.

Please click here to apply to join our housing register. It's an online form, grab a cuppa as the form will take you about 30 to 40 minutes to complete.
Anyone over the age of 16 can apply to join the Housing Register although some people may not be eligible to join.

These include people who are subject to immigration control

Please view our interactive map on our social housing page, which will provide you with a guide to how long you could wait to be housed.

PLEASE NOTE: The interactive map gives a guide to those with a housing need.

If you have any changes to your circumstances, e.g. a change of address, change of contact number, a new addition to the family, please let us know by completing our online change of circumstances form, which can be accessed from the 'your account' page.

. If you need to update us on your new phone or email address, please update your contact details when you next sign in.
The aim of this policy is to ensure that households with strong links to rural areas are given the opportunity to remain in their communities. Please see our Applicant's Guide to Rural Allocations in the 'help guides' for more info.
To see where you were 'ranked' on a shortlist. Please sign in to you account, go to 'Your previous bids' and click on 'show all previous bids'. This will show where you were ranked as well as the shortlisting status of the property.
During each weekly bidding cycle, your bid position can change. It all depends on how many people have bid on a property.

Properties located in towns are more sought after than properties in rural areas and will always attract more bids. Your ranking may change if other people bidding have a higher housing priority and registered before you.

If you are bidding on a property where priority is given to a certain band, your ranking will change after bidding ends.

A shortlist is created of everyone who is interested in a property. This list is placed in order of bands and if more than one person with the same band has placed a bid, your registration date is then taken into account.

The person with the highest band and/or earliest registration date who meets the criteria for the property( e.g. rural allocations or adaptions, local letting plans or quotas) is the person who is likely to be offered the property. This is subject to checks and references carried out by the landlord.

Yes, you are not limited to the number of bids you can place at any given time. However, you should only bid on properties that you are genuinely interested in as the policy only allows for two refusals. Your application will be demoted if you refuse 2 properties within a 12 month period. This is one reasonable refusal for homeless households.
Occasionally, a property that has been available on the website becomes unavailable after bidding closes. This can happen when the tenant changes their mind about leaving the property and withdraws their notice or if there are major works going on in the property causing significant delays.

When you look at properties on the website without logging in, you will be able to see all of the properties advertised in that week.

Once you have logged in, you will only be able to see the properties that you are eligible to bid on. If you feel there is a property available that you are eligible for and are unable to bid on, please contact us.

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If you have a local connection through a family member (Parent, Sibling, Child or someone that has acted in a parental capacity) please provide us with proof they have lived in the county for the past 5 years continuously. This could be through utility bills, bank statements, medical registration documents or education records. Please Note: There will be no local connection where the relationship is estranged.

If you have a local connection through your employment, please provide us with proof that you are employed within Monmouthshire and working 15 hours a week or more. This proof needs to show the date of commencement of employment and confirmation from their employer of employment status, and whether this is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

Applicants who are applying for reasons of providing support to a dependent child or adult or receiving support from a principal carer must provide evidence such as:

• Social Services care package

• Carer’s allowance/attendance allowance

• Confirmation from the dependent or main care giver

After 8 days a property advert will close. To find out the status you can log in to you page, go to your ‘previous bids’, then click on ‘show all previous bids’. If you click on ‘?’ on status, this will show you a table of what these statuses mean. A property will continue to show as ‘shortlisting’ until the shortlisting officer from the relevant landlord has completed the review of the shortlist. The time a shortlist takes to process is dependent form landlord to landlord and can be influenced from a number of external factors beyond their control, such as; • If a property is a new build and there are delays with the development • If there are major work on the property • If the notice on the property has been extended • They are making further enquiries/checks on the property • They are in the process of verifying and making checks on the applicant at the top of the shortlist. However, this does not prevent you bidding on other properties in the meantime, and we recommend that you keep checking your feedback regularly for updates on progress of the shortlist.
We recommend that you submit your supporting information and form at the same time. This is to avoid any delays in processing your application. Once you have given us, all of your supporting evidence, Homesearch will assess your application within 28 days. Applications are not necessarily assessed on the severity of the condition, but on how the property and/or area is having a detrimental impact on your health and wellbeing. As well as stating this on your medical or welfare application, your supporting information from professionals should support this. If it does not, this may result in delays processing your medical/welfare application or your application not being awarded any further priority. Medical/welfare applications are reviewed on your current address, which means if you move, your application will be re-assessed on these circumstances/the new home and your medical/welfare will be removed.
The decision email/letter we send you will explain how you can appeal against the decision. You must request this within 21 days of our decision. If you do submit any further information, we will review this information to check whether we can award any further priority. If we are unable to, your appeal will be passed to the Monmouthshire Homesearch Sub Operational Panel representatives to review. For impartiality reasons, these Panel representatives of will not have been involved with the original decision. Once this has been submitted, your appeal will be heard within 28 days, and you will receive the outcome in writing.
If we have not awarded you any further priority, there could be a number of reasons, but we will try and explain this on the decision letter/email; Some of the reasons could be (this list is not exhaustive); • You are already in a band that recognises your need e.g. for issues relating to over crowding • Your property has been adapted and/or fully or partly meets you or your households needs • We have already reviewed a medical/welfare application within the last 12 months and there is no new change in your circumstances • The professional supporting information does no corroborate the information on your medical/welfare form or that it does not confirm/describe the impact the property is having on your health and or well-being • You have move address and your new property is meeting your needs. • We have no supporting professional statements/information, or the information submitted only confirms your condition • We will accept photo proofs, however, the information you have provided is unclear or poor quality.
The Policy does allow, in some cases, a 2nd bedroom for single households who need an additional room for a full-time or overnight carer or access. However, in order to award this we do require further information from you such as; • Confirmation from social services that 2nd bedroom is required for a carer • You or a family member is in receipt of carer’s allowance and higher rate on a disability benefit • An Occupational Therapist has confirmed the need for a 2nd bedroom • A letter from a professional such as a head teacher, solicitor or a court order which outlines the access arrangements • In some instances, we will accept confirmation from the parent where the children are normally resident with if these arrangements have been agreed on an informal basis. Should you shortlist for a 2 bed property, any offers will be subject to an affordability assessment by the social landlord as a property awarded on the basis of access may be subject to bedroom tax. An additional bedroom will not be awarded on the grounds of access if you already have children living with you on a full-time basis unless supporting documentation shows that the child/children are unable to share a bedroom with any other child/children currently residing at the property.
A mutual exchange is where you swap your current social housing home with another council or housing association tenant anywhere in the UK. Tenants arrange mutual exchanges themselves, often with the help of mutual exchange websites such as Homeswapper. You must get permission from your landlord before entering into a mutual exchange with another social housing tenant’
Homesearch now requests tenancy references from all social and private landlords. A condition of an offer of a property through the social housing register is on condition of a satisfactory tenancy reference. Homesearch aims to alert applicants to the risk of their application either being suspended or demoted at the earliest opportunity and this why references are requested at time of application and again at point of offer.
If you have a significant amount of rent arrears, Homesearch will look in to the reasons behind this, so it is important that you let us know straight away. We acknowledge that this is a tough time for many Monmouthshire residents who are struggling with rent increases and rising cost of living and this is taken in to consideration. It will also help your case if you are able to demonstrate a willingness to address the behaviour such as engaging with support providers, debt agencies or agreeing to a payment plan. Should your application be suspended or demoted, Homesearch will inform you about the steps you need to take to reinstate your application back on the waiting list and where to get help.
When assessing your application, Homesearch requires a tenancy reference from your landlord. If Homesearch has not been made aware of any mitigating circumstances or there is no payment plan in place, this will get referred to the 'Suspension Panel' who will make a decision on your application. Generally anyone with arrears over £1000 could be suspended and anyone with arrears between £500-£999 could find their applications demoted, meaning they are still live on the waiting list but in a lower band. The Suspension Panel/Homesearch will then advise of prescribed actions so your application can be reinstated, for example, set up a payment plan and make a set amount of payments. You will then need to contact Homesearch to advise that you have met your actions. If your behaviours is as a result of rechargeable repairs, property condition or behaviour which is deemed as a nuisance/anti-social behaviour, all these cases are considered by the Suspension panel.
Whether you’re concerned about yourself or a loved one, these helplines and websites can offer expert advice. Please click here