You can visit either Morecambe or Lancaster Town Hall once a week where Customer Services can look at available properties being advertised (between Wednesday and Monday up to 5pm) and place bids for you.  

You can also call us on 01524 582005 once a week between Wednesday and Monday up to 5pm and Customer Services can look at properties being advertised and place bids for you. 

If you are unable to bid for yourself and do not have any family, friends or advocates who can bid on your behalf, we do have an assisted bidding scheme for vulnerable customers. This will mean that bids are placed on your behalf, based on the areas you are looking to move to. 

Run through this checklist:

• Do you have an active application? If not, refer to 'Why isn’t my application active?'.
• Is it a Tuesday? The website has no adverts on a Tuesday as shortlisting is taking place and new adverts are being created that will go live at midnight.
• Are there properties being advertised that you meet the size and age criteria for? If not, then no properties will come up that you can bid on.
• Have you or someone else already placed bids in that bidding cycle? If you have asked to be on assisted bidding or have a friend or relative bidding for you, they may have already placed some bids. You can check your account to see if they have.   
• Are there restrictions on the property that you want to bid on? Some adverts have additional criteria such as: being in employment; minimum age; armed forces connection etc. This information will be on the advert. If you meet the criteria and the property size but can’t bid, then please ring 01524 582005 or email challocations@lancaster.gov.uk and we can discuss this with you.
• Have you already been offered or nominated for a property? Check your account to see if you have been matched to a property. If you have been matched to a property, you cannot bid on other properties.
• Is it an above ground floor flat or a house? If it is - but you have been assessed as needing a ground floor property - you won’t be able to bid on these.
• Are you wanting to bid on a bungalow and one of the joint applicants is under the age criteria for the property? If you have a joint application and one of the joint applicants is aged under 55 or 60 (dependent on whether you are applying for a general needs bungalow or Independent Living Scheme) then you will need to contact us to bid on properties. Alternatively, we can amend your application so that you can bid on these properties. Please ring 01524 582005 or email challocations@lancaster.gov.uk and we can discuss this with you.

Unfortunately, we have more applicants who would like social housing than we have available properties. Therefore, applicants can be waiting many years before they are successful in bidding on a property. If you have a low priority, need a large family home or are only looking for a specific area where we have very little social housing, then you may not be successful in bidding for a property. 

You can also apply directly to other social housing providers in the district who let 50% of their available properties from their own websites. 

There are ways you can increase your chances of being offered a property: 

• Make sure you log on each week to check for properties. 
• Use your bids wisely.
• Read all the information on the advert to check that you meet the criteria. For example, if it says the maximum household size is three and there are four members in your household, they you will be skipped on the shortlist and you will not be matched to it.
• If you have pets that you have said you won’t rehome and the property says no pets, then you will be skipped on the shortlist and not matched to it. 
• If there are more than two properties that you can bid on, place bids on properties where you will be higher up the shortlist. We do sometimes get refusals on properties. 
• Make sure your application in kept up to date with any changes to your household or circumstances. For example, if you no longer have a pet, an adult child moves out or you move address. 
• If you have a connection to a rural parish, let us know and we can update your application with this. 
• Be flexible in your areas of choice and property types. For example, we have lower demand for two-bedroom flats that we do for two-bedroom houses. 

We do not advise any applicant to wait until bidding goes live at midnight to bid on a property. This is because properties are not allocated on a first-come basis. 

If does not matter at what point in the bidding cycle that you place a bid on a property, it will not alter your final position when bidding closes at midnight on a Monday. You may wish to wait until Monday to place a bid as you will have a better idea of where you would be on a shortlist as other applicants will have already placed their bids. 

Your position on a shortlist will depend upon the band the property is prioritised to, your band and your waiting time within that band.  

For example, if a property is advertised with priority to 'Band B', it will shortlist applicants in the following order, those in 'Band B', then 'Band A', then 'Band C', then 'Band D' and then 'Band E'. If more than one applicant in 'Band B' bids on the property, they will be prioritised by which applicant has been waiting the longest in 'Band B'. 

If a property is advertised with priority to 'Band C', it will shortlist applicants in the following order, those in 'Band C', then 'Band A', then 'Band B', then 'Band D' and then 'Band E'. If more than one applicant in 'Band C' bids on the property, they will be prioritised by which applicant has been waiting the longest in 'Band C'. 

It may also be affected by other factors such as whether you have a rural connection, whether you need the adaptations that a property may have and if it is a double flat within an Independent Living scheme where priority is given to couples. 

The majority of properties (75%) will be prioritised to applicants in Band A' and 'Band B' as they have the greatest need for rehousing. 

The system matches properties based on age and the number of bedrooms or the bedspace if it is a studio flat. We can also restrict adverts for members of the Armed Forces community or those in employment to applicants who meet these additional criteria. 

Therefore, there may be properties that come up that you can bid on that aren’t suitable for you, such as a second floor flat when you can’t manage stairs.  

If there are other criteria like adaptations, rural connections, maximum numbers you may still be able to bid these properties, but they aren’t going to be suitable for you.  

We would advise that you read the advert before placing a bid. When you log in to bid, if you click on show full details it will tell you what floor the property is on and other useful information about the property including any additional criteria.  

Yes, you can. However, this does not mean that the property that you bid on could be adapted to meet your needs or that the landlord would agree to adaptations being undertaken. 

Lancaster City Council and other social housing providers in the district have their own Adaptations policies and they will assess whether they will undertake adaptations to a property in line with these policies. 

We would advise that you speak to a member of the Ideal Choice Homes team about the adaptations that you require, and we can advise which properties could be adapted to meet your needs.  

If you are successful with bidding on a Lancaster City Council property, we can arrange for you to view the property with your Occupational Therapist and a Technical Officer to discuss your needs and how the property could or couldn’t be adapted and the timescales involved. 

Do you meet the criteria for a bungalow? For an allocation of a non-Independent Living Scheme bungalow, an applicant will need to meet one of the following criteria:  

• The applicant or one of the joint applicants will need to be aged 55 or over. An applicant’s partner does not need to meet an age requirement but may not have a joint tenancy.  
• The applicant or one of the joint applicants has been sanctioned a bungalow on medical grounds by the medical officer.  

In addition, no member of the household should be aged under 30. The only exception to this will be where  

• An applicant or a member of their household is a full-time indoor wheelchair user, confirmed by a medical practitioner or occupational health therapist, regardless of age. 

If you don’t meet the criteria for a bungalow, then you won’t be able to bid on them.  

If you are aged over 55 but your partner is aged under 55 or you have children aged over 30 but under 55 included on your application, then let us know and we can amend your application so that you can bid on bungalows. 

If you feel you have a medical need for a bungalow, then you can provide medical information about why you need a bungalow. You would need to demonstrate why other accommodation you can bid on would not be suitable for you on medical grounds, e.g. why a ground floor flat would not meet your needs.

If you are aged over 55 but your partner is aged under 55, then let us know and we can amend your application so that you can bid on bungalows. As long as you have no other household members aged under 30, we will be able to do this.

Lancaster City Council Independent Living Accommodation has a different policy from other social housing providers of Sheltered Accommodation in the district. 

If you are aged over 60 and need the support that Independent Living provides but you have a partner who is aged under 60, then you can bid on properties, but you will need to have your application amended by a member of the Ideal Choice Homes team to enable you to do this. This will be subject to an assessment with the Independent Living Officer.

Most other social housing providers of Sheltered Accommodation will accept applicants from the age of 55 ((Anchor Housing, Places for People, Contour, Johnnie Johnson and Housing 21), therefore you will be able to bid on these properties.

There is no system that can accurately reflect all the different agreements for rural lettings, as many of them will have different rules. Therefore, we cannot restrict an advert so that only applicants with a rural connection can apply to them. 

If the advert states that an applicant must have a rural connection to a specific village or parish, then you will not be offered this property if you do not. Even if you are first on the shortlist, you will not be offered the property. 

Quite often, there are additional rules or ways of prioritising applicants on some rural developments as part of the Section 106. Copies of these can always be provided on request.