home connections booklet.pdf - Haringey Council

Haringey 

Home Connections 

Choice based lettings scheme 

The way that 

social rented 

housing is 

allocated in 

Haringey 

Revised Version 

March 2011 

www.haringey.gov.uk 

homeconnections 

letting...you choose

Choice based lettings 

What is Haringey Home Connections? 

Haringey Home Connections is our 

choice based lettings scheme. It is the 

way we allocate council and housing 

association homes for rent in 

Haringey. 

The scheme has been designed to make the 

allocation of social housing more transparent 

and to make it easier for applicants to assess 

their prospects of being offered the tenancy 

of a council or housing association home. 

Every week, we advertise council and housing 

association homes that are available for rent 

through the Home Connections scheme. 

Homes will be advertised on the Haringey 

Home Connections website from Wednesday 

until Sunday, and in the Council’s Customer 

Service Centres and libraries from 

Wednesday afternoon until Friday. 

To access the Home Connections website, go 

to www.homeconnections.org.uk and click 

on the ‘Haringey’ button. 

If you have difficulty in reading or 

understanding the information in this 

booklet please contact us and a 

customer service adviser will help you. 

2

Through the Home Connections website, you 

can search for available homes, express an 

interest in homes that meet your needs, and 

view the results of previous lettings. 

When you see something that is suitable, you 

can ask to be considered for it. This is called 

bidding and you can do it through the Home 

Connections website, by telephone or by 

sending a mobile phone text message. 

Before you are able to bid, you must be 

registered on Haringey’s Housing Register. 

This is because we can only allocate council 

and housing association homes to people who 

are eligible and on the Housing Register. 

If you are not on the Housing Register, you can 

complete an application online. We will then 

assess your application in accordance with 

Haringey’s Housing Allocations Policy. 

After assessing your application, we will write 

to you and tell you which Housing Needs Band 

(A, B, C, D or E) reflects your situation. 

Band A is the highest priority Band and Band 

E is the lowest priority Band. 

Within your Band, you will be placed in date 

order, using your ‘effective date’. Normally, this 

is the date we received your application. 

We will also send you a User ID and PIN, 

which you will need when you use the Home 

Connections Service and bid for homes. 

3


Joining Haringeyʼs Housing Register 

Anyone aged 16 or over can apply to 

join Haringey’s Housing Register. 

However, in order to be accepted, 

they must satisfy the eligibility criteria. 

Some people are not eligible, by law, to join 

the Housing Register. These are: 

• Certain people who are subject to 

immigration control 

• Certain people from abroad who are not 

subject to immigration control but who are 

not habitually resident in the UK, the 

Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or the 

Republic of Ireland 

• People (including members of their 

household) who have been guilty of 

unacceptable behaviour that makes them 

unsuitable to be a tenant. 

If you are not already on Haringey’s Housing 

Register, you must complete the online 

application by visiting the Council’s website: 

www.haringey.gov.uk/housing 

It takes about 45 minutes to complete the 

online application. You can obtain free access 

to a computer in the Council’s Customer 

Service Centres and libraries 

(See Page 19). 

4

When completing your application, you must supply the Council with the 

name, address and date of birth (together with the full address history for 

the last 5 years) of each member of your household, including children. 

You must also supply the Council with the National Insurance Numbers of 

everyone in your household who is aged 16 or over. 

As the Housing Allocations Policy gives priority to applicants with a local 

connection, tell us about any connection you have with Haringey. 

You can only include in your application people who normally live with you 

(or might reasonably be expected to live with you) as a member of your 

household. It is essential that you inform the Council if anyone joins or 

leaves your household after the date of your application. 

We aim to assess all applications within 4 weeks of receiving the form 

and any other information we need. If your application is accepted, we 

will write to you, confirming the following: 

• Your housing registration number (User ID) and PIN, and the 

information you will need in order to use the Home Connections 

service 

• The Housing Needs Band (A, B, C, D or E) into which you have been 

placed and your ‘effective date’ 

• The number of bedrooms to which you are entitled. 

You must tell us of any changes in your circumstances, so that we can 

review your application and, if necessary, change your Band and effective 

date. 

If your housing application is accepted, we will send you a letter each 

year, asking if you still want to remain on the Housing Register. If you fail 

to respond to these letters, we will cancel your housing application. 

5


Housing Needs Bands 

Each year, only 1 applicant in 20 on Haringey’s Housing 

Register is offered the tenancy of a council or housing 

association home. Most applicants on the Register will 

never be offered social housing. 

When you bid, your level of priority will be determined by your Housing 

Needs Band (A, B, C, D or E) and the date you joined the Register. 

Due to the very high demand for social rented housing in Haringey, almost 

all of it will be offered to applicants in Housing Needs Bands A and B. 

Only a very small number of applicants in Band C will be offered a tenancy. 

Applicants in Housing Needs Bands D & E will have no realistic prospect of 

being offered social housing. 

• Band A – Applicants with a local connection and an urgent need to 

move (including applicants in immediate danger, people who 

need to move urgently for medical reasons, and tenants of 

social housing who are willing to move out of their large 

family home or specially adapted home). 

• Band B – Applicants with a local connection and a very high need to 

move (including applicants who need to move due to serious 

medical problems, social housing tenants who are severely 

overcrowded, and households for whom the Council has 

accepted a full homelessness duty). 

• Band C – Applicants with a local connection and a high need to move 

and applicants who have an urgent need to move but have 

no local connection. 

A copy of the Housing Allocations Policy, including full details of the 

‘banding system’, is available on the Council’s website: 

www.haringey.gov.uk/allocations-policy 

6

How Home Connections works 

Council and housing association 

homes are advertised each week. 

They appear on the Home 

Connections website on Wednesday 

and are available for bidding until 

midnight on Sunday. 

From Wednesday afternoon until Friday, the 

properties are advertised in the Council’s 

Customer Service Centres and libraries. 

Each week, you have until midnight on 

Sunday to bid for up to three properties. If 

you do not have a computer at home, you 

can use one, free of charge, at one of the 

Council’s Customer Service Centres or 

libraries. 

To help you decide which properties to bid 

for, the adverts contain the name of the 

landlord, the size and location of the property, 

the weekly rent, and other information about 

the local services and amenities. Many of the 

adverts contain a photograph of the property. 

The advert also tells you if there are any 

restrictions on who can bid for the property. A 

restriction will normally apply, for example, 

where the home has been specially adapted 

to meet the needs of a wheelchair user. 

You will only be able to bid for properties 

that you are eligible for. 

7



The Council is committed to reducing 

the number of homeless households 

living in temporary accommodation 

and the length of time they wait for a 

settled home. 

Although it actively encourages all applicants 

to consider all types of property in as many 

parts of the borough as possible, the Council 

expects homeless households to bid for all 

suitable homes. 

To ensure that homeless households move 

out of temporary accommodation as soon as 

possible (and do not simply wait until they can 

make a successful bid for those homes that 

are in the most popular parts of Haringey), 

we have introduced auto-bidding. 

Auto-bidding means that, if you are still living 

in temporary accommodation when you could 

have been bidding successfully for a suitable 

home, we will interview you to review your 

situation and discuss all of your housing 

options, including affordable home ownership 

and renting a home in the private sector. We 

will also talk to you about auto-bidding. 

Two months after that interview, the Home 

Connections computer will start bidding, on 

your behalf, for homes that are suitable and 

meet your housing needs. 

8


When you bid for a home through Home 

Connections, you will need to know your 

User ID and PIN. 

Your User ID 

This is your Housing Registration Number. It has 

six digits and starts with 0. 

Example: 023456. 

Your PIN 

This is your Personal Identification Number. It has 

six digits and is your date of birth. 

Example: If your date of birth is 1 January 1964, 

your PIN will be 010164. 

Forgotten your User ID? Please phone 

Customer Services (020 8489 1000) or visit one of 

our Customer Service Centres. 

Need help in making your bid? Please visit one 

of our Customer Service Centres or libraries where 

the staff will help you bid. 

Details of the Council’s Customer Service Centres 

and libraries are on Page 19. 

9


Bidding for homes through the website 

Bidding through the website 

Have your User ID, PIN and the property 

advert numbers ready. 

Step 1 

Go to 

www.homeconnections.org.uk 

Step 2 

Click the ‘Haringey’ button 

Step 3 

Click ‘Login’, then type in your 

User ID and PIN 

Step 4 

You will be asked if you want to do a 

‘Survey’ or ‘Continue to my details’. 

Click ‘Continue to my details’. 

A new page will open, showing 

which Band you are in and the 

number of bedrooms you need. The 

bids you have made in the past will 

be displayed below. 

10

Step 5 

Click ‘See all properties’ 

on the left hand side of 

the screen. This will open 

a new page where you 

can view the properties 

available. 

To search for properties 

that match your needs, 

choose the number of 

bedrooms, area and 

building type you are 

looking for. Then click the 

‘Search’ button with the 

black and white arrow. 

If you want to bid for a 

property that you have 

seen advertised, enter 

the advert number in the 

‘Search by advert’ box 

and then click the 

‘Search by advert’ 

button. 

Step 6 

Click ‘Full property info’ 

to view more details 

about the property. Then 

click the ‘Back’ button 

(top left) to come out of 

this webpage. 

Step 7 

To bid for a property, tick 

the ‘Check’ button on 

the left hand side, scroll 

down the page and then 

click the ‘Bid Property’ 

button. 

Step 8 

When you have finished, 

please click ‘Log out’ at 

the top left hand of the 

page. This is very 

important if you are using 

a computer in a public 

place. 

Having problems placing your bid on the website? 

Email: lettings@haringey.gov.uk 

11


Bidding for homes by phone and text messaging 

Bidding by phone 

Have your User ID, PIN and the 

property advert numbers ready. 

To bid by phone you will need a 

touch-tone telephone with a hash 

button (the # sign on the keypad). 

A person’s voice will guide you 

through each step. 

You can choose to listen to the 

instructions in English or one of 

nine community languages: 

Sylheti, Cantonese, French, 

Somali, Turkish, Arabic, Urdu, 

Punjabi and Vietnamese. 

Step 1: 

Step 2: 

Step 3: 

Step 4: 

Step 5: 

Step 6: 

Step 7: 

Call 0845 330 3184 

Choose the language 

you want to use 

Enter your User ID 

Enter your PIN 

Press 1 to bid for a 

new property 

Enter the advert 

number for the 

property 

You will hear a 

description of the 

property you have 

selected. If it is the one 

you want, press 1 to 

confirm your bid. If it is 

the wrong one press 2 

and you will be asked 

to enter the property 

number again. 

If you try to bid for a property 

which does not match your needs, 

your bid will not be processed. 

The system will tell you this. 

12

Bidding by text messaging on your 

mobile phone 

Have your User ID, PIN and the property advert 

numbers ready. 

Step 1: Open a new text message on your phone. 

Step 2: Leaving no spaces, enter: ‘bid’, ‘#’, your 

User ID, ‘#’, your PIN, then, for each 

property you are bidding for, ‘#’ followed 

by the advert reference number. 

Example: If your User ID is 987654, your 

PIN is 010164 and you want to bid for two 

properties with the references 123456 and 

555444, your message will be: 

Bid#987654#010164#123456#555444 

Step 3: Check the numbers are 

correct and press ‘send’ on your 

keypad and key in 07781 482 894. 

If you have followed Steps 1, 2 

and 3 correctly, you should 

get a text from us within an 

hour telling you whether 

your bid is valid. 

13


Shortlisting, viewings and lettings 

14 

For each of the homes advertised 

through Home Connections, we will 

produce a shortlist of those bidders 

who have the highest priority (based 

on their Housing Needs Band and 

effective date) and are eligible for 

housing. 

You will not be shortlisted if you have rent 

arrears, do not meet the eligibility criteria 

specified in the Home Connections advert or 

are prevented (by the Housing Allocations 

Policy) from receiving an offer of housing. 

The shortlists will be produced on Monday and 

viewings of the council homes will normally take 

place on the Tuesday or Wednesday. 

Housing associations will arrange their own 

viewings and will, themselves, contact the 

applicants nominated by the Council. They will 

usually give more notice of the viewing. 

You must ensure we have your up-to-date 

telephone number, so that we can contact 

you quickly when you are shortlisted for 

properties and need to attend viewings. 

It is possible that you will be asked to view a 

council or housing association home that is in 

the process of being repaired. Where this 

happens, we would recommend that you do 

not bring children with you to the viewing. The 

Officer who attends will confirm what repairs 

will be carried out and answer your questions.

After the viewings, we will offer the property to the applicant in the highest 

Housing Needs Band and with the earliest effective date. This offer will be 

subject to a successful verification of their eligibility and circumstances. 

During the verification interview (which must be attended by all members 

of your household who are aged 18 or over), we will check your 

circumstances and all relevant documents. If you are unable to provide the 

documents within the required timescales or if it is decided that you should 

be placed in a lower Housing Needs Band, you will not be formally offered 

the property. 

If we are unable to offer the property to the applicant with the highest 

priority (or if they decide to refuse the property), we will simply move on to 

the next applicant. 

Offers made to auto-bidders 

If you are the applicant with the highest priority and you are living in 

temporary accommodation, you will be offered the tenancy, as your 

formal offer of accommodation, if your bid for the property was made 

through the auto-bidding arrangements. 

If more than one of your bids is successful, you will be asked to choose 

the property you would prefer to be offered. 

Where the property you are being offered is suitable and you decide to 

refuse that offer, the Council will discharge its homelessness duty and 

withdraw the provision of temporary accommodation. It will also review 

your position on the Housing Register. 

Signing the tenancy agreement 

If you are the successful bidder, we will ask you to sign a new tenancy 

agreement. When you have signed the agreement, you are committed 

to taking the property. The tenancy will begin on an agreed date, when 

the property is ready for occupation. You will be given reasonable notice 

to move. 

15


Advice, help and support 

16 

With such a high demand for social 

rented housing in Haringey, it is 

essential that you consider all types 

of property in as many parts of the 

borough as possible. 

In Haringey, most of the council and housing 

association homes are flats or maisonettes on 

estates, and 80% of social rented housing is 

situated in the East of the borough. 

Almost two thirds of Haringey’s social rented 

housing is concentrated in just eight of the 

borough’s 19 Wards: Northumberland Park, 

White Hart Lane, Noel Park, West Green, 

Tottenham Hale, Tottenham Green, Seven 

Sisters and Bounds Green. 

When considering your housing options, you 

should take into account how much social 

rented housing there is in the areas in which 

you want to live and the frequency with which 

those homes become available for re-letting. 

If you are seeking a 4-bedroom home in 

Highgate or Muswell Hill, for example, you need 

to know that there are a total of 22 properties 

of this size in those areas and that, in 2009/10, 

only one 4-bedroom home became available. 

By comparison your prospects of bidding 

successfully for a 4-bedroom home in 

Northumberland Park or Seven Sisters would 

be considerably better, because there are a 

total of 168 properties of this size in those 

areas and, during 2009/10, eight 4-bedroom 

homes became available for letting.

Details of the number and type of council and housing association homes 

in Haringey – together with their location and the number of homes that 

became available for letting between 2007 and 2010 – are on the 

Council’s website: 

www.haringey.gov.uk/housing 

Information about the homes that have previously been let through the 

choice based lettings scheme are published on the Home Connections 

website and in the weekly adverts displayed in the Customer Services 

Centres and libraries. 

For each property, we tell you how many applicants bid for the property 

and confirm the Band and effective date of the successful bidder. 

This information will provide you with a good idea of how popular a 

particular property or area is and whether or not you have any realistic 

prospect of bidding successfully for such a property in the future. It will 

also help you decide whether or not you should be considering other, less 

popular areas or properties in order to improve your prospects. 

Reviewing your bidding history 

We can also review your bidding history with you, looking at the outcome 

of your bids for particular homes and explaining what the outcome would 

have been if you had bid for others that were not in such high demand. 

Exploring all of your housing options 

Although we do hope you will find our choice based lettings scheme 

helpful, you should consider all of your housing options, including 

affordable home ownership, private rented accommodation and, if you are 

already a social housing tenant, mutual exchange. 

17


How to contact us 

Housing Assessments 

Housing Assessment Team 

1st Floor, Apex House 

Haringey Council 

820 Seven Sisters Road 

Tottenham N15 5PQ 

Telephone: 020 8489 1000 

Lettings 

Lettings Team 




London N15 5PQ 

Telephone: 020 8489 1000 

Housing Advice and Options 

Housing Advice and Options Team 




London N15 5PQ 

Telephone: 020 8489 1000 

18 

Website: www.haringey.gov.uk 

Typtalk: 18001 8489 1000 

Home Connections website: 

www.homeconnections.org.uk 

Visit one of our Customer Service Centres 

(see opposite page) 

Open Monday to Friday 8.45am to 5pm

Places you can get access to a computer 

Libraries 

You can get free access to a computer at any one of our 

nine libraries. 

Muswell Hill Library 

Queens Avenue 

Muswell Hill 

London N10 3PE 

Wood Green Central 

Library 

High Road 

Wood Green 

London N22 6XD 

Alexandra Park Library 

Alexandra Park Road 

Wood Green 

London N22 7UJ 

Coombes Croft Library 

Tottenham High Road 

London N17 8AG 

Highgate Library 

Shepherds Hill 

Highgate 

London N6 5QT 

St Ann's Library 

Cissbury Road 

Tottenham 

London N15 5PU 

Hornsey Library 

Haringey Park 

London N8 9JA 

Stroud Green Library 

Quernmore Road 

London N4 4QR 

Marcus Garvey Library 

Tottenham Green 

Centre 

1 Phillip Lane 

London N15 4JA 

Customer Service Centres 

You can get free help and advice at our Customer Service Centres. 

Open Monday to Friday, 8.45am to 5pm 

North Tottenham 

639 High Road 

Tottenham 

N17 8BD 

South Tottenham 

Apex House 

820 Seven 

Sisters Road 

South Tottenham 

N15 5PQ 

Wood Green 

48 Station Road 

Wood Green 

N22 7TY 

Hornsey 

Hornsey Town 

Hall Annexe 

The Broadway 

Crouch End 

London N8 9JJ 

19

Shqip 

Polish 

Français 

Soomaali 

Kurdî Kurmancî 

Türkçe 

Please tell us if you would like a copy of this booklet in another language that is not listed above 

or in any of the following formats, and send the form to the Freepost address below. 

In large print On audio tape In Braille 

In another language, please state: 

Name: 

Tel: 

Address: 

Email: 

Please return to: Freepost RLXS-XZGT-UGRJ, Haringey Council, 

Translation and Interpretation Services, 8th Floor, River Park House, 225 High Road, London N22 8HQ 

Haringey Council offers this translating and interpreting service to Haringey residents. We can translate this document into one language per resident ONLY. 

Haringey Home Connections 

This is printed on recycled paper 

✂ 

Published by Haringey Council’s 

Communications Unit 521.8 UEn • 02/11

home connections booklet.pdf - Haringey Council

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