How It Works

How do I get housing?

HomePoint strongly recommends you consider all of your housing options carefully and have a clear understanding of how to use HomePoint.

For more detailed information, we recommend that you:

Look at the Homelessness Advice section if you have received a notice to quit, are roofless or under threat of homelessness
Complete the Shropshire Council Self Advice Tool to find options available to you
Contact Shropshire Council for advice on all housing options available to you
Review the Housing Data for the Shropshire HomePoint register

This website

This website can be used to:

• To Register on the Shropshire Housing Register (waiting list) and Login to update your application if your circumstances or contact details change

• If you are a social housing tenant living in Shropshire excluding Telford and Wrekin, Register on the Shropshire Mutual Exchange Register

• To bid (apply) for available properties in Shropshire via your Login, including:

Affordable and Social Rented
Low Cost Home Ownership (Shared Ownership)
Mutual Exchanges
Private Rented

• To view your property results on My Bids

• To Contact HomePoint.

How do I start

Please take time to become familiar with how this website and HomePoint works

• Register your basic household details using Register

• Once you have registered your household you can then:

Apply to join the Social Housing Register
Apply to join the Shropshire Mutual Exchange Register

If you have any difficulties please contact HomePoint and speak with an adviser.

An overview of how Shropshire HomePoint works

1. You complete an online application or a HomePoint paper application form in full and supply copies of all relevant documentation. Copies of documents can be sent by post or emailed. To prevent email correspondence being sent to your junk mail folder, please add enquiries@shropshirehomepoint.co.uk to your contacts list.

2. Processing times for a completed online application to be assessed, for eligibility and banding, is currently 20 Weeks.

3. HomePoint will check if you are eligible to join the Housing Register. If you are eligible, your need for housing will be assessed according to categories called ‘bands’. Once registered you will be informed in an email or by letter of your Shropshire HomePoint reference number, your band, your registration date and bedroom entitlement and need for property adaptations. Please take careful note of these as you will only be able to bid for properties that meet these needs. Full details of our bands, named 1 to 7, can be found in the Shropshire Council Allocation Policy and Scheme.

4. With your reference number you can then Login and begin to apply for properties; this is more commonly known as bidding. The weekly property cycle runs from a Wednesday until midnight the following Tuesday. Properties are advertised on the Shropshire HomePoint website and you have 7 days to bid, so there is no rush. Your final bid position will be based on your band and band date, and not when you place your bid. You are able to apply for 1 affordable / social rented property each cycle, the property must meet your housing needs such as number of bedrooms, sheltered or adapted needs as advised in your registration letter.

5. The successful applicant will be the one in the highest band, with the longest waiting time who is eligible for the property. You can view your bids in the My Bids section. It is the landlord and not HomePoint that allocates the property.

6. If successful, the landlord of the property will offer you a viewing. If you like the property, have supplied the original documentation requested by the landlord, and pass their verification and reference checks, the landlord may then officially offer you the property.

7. The Landlord will ask you to move in on an agreed date and you will need to sign a tenancy agreement or exchange contracts if purchasing the property, and pay any rent in advance or upfront costs.

8. Once you sign your tenancy agreement, your application with Shropshire HomePoint is closed. Should you wish to rejoin the Housing Register, you will then need to log in with your reference number and complete a new application.

9. If you have not heard from the Landlord within about four weeks of the end of the property cycle, it probably means you have not been successful. Overall property results are published on the HomePoint website or you can follow the outcomes for your active or historic bids in My Bids. To find out more about why you were not successful on a property, please contact the landlord directly.

Ways to apply for a property

Once you have registered with HomePoint, you can apply for properties in the following ways:

• Log onto the HomePoint Website at www.shropshirehomepoint.co.uk

• Apply by text message from your mobile phone on 0786 001 5237

Example 154322 01/01/1970 2134

Reference Number (space) D/O/B (space) Property Reference Number

• Email into HomePoint

• Telephone HomePoint on 0300 303 8595.

Posting applications and correspondence

Shropshire HomePoint cannot collect underpaid mail. Should you decide to send in a paper application form or need to send in correspondence, please check carefully the full postage has been paid.

Please ask at your local post office or alternatively check online at www.royalmail.com for postage rates and costs.