When a customer places a bid on a property they are interested in, our computer system immediately sorts and ranks the bid. It does this by points and eligibility. Customers with higher points and are eligible for the property will rank higher than those with lower points or who are not eligible. All the bids that customers place make up a ‘bid list.’ Once the advert cycle closes on Tuesday at 11.59pm this bid list freezes so we are then able to look at the top cases. The bid list is then short listed.
When an officer short lists a property we start at the top of the list - the person in bid position 1. We check a lot of information including what other bids have been made, if the points are correct and if details are correct. The officer will try to contact customers by phone if their bid is short listed. We short list properties by viewing date. The viewing date is specified on the property advert.
Viewing Day
|
Shortlisting day
|
| Monday |
Wednesday |
| Tuesday |
Thursday |
| Wednesday |
Friday |
| Thursday |
Monday |
| Friday |
Wednesday |
| No viewing day specified |
Monday or Tuesday |
So if the viewing date on the advert is a date on a Friday ,we will short list the property on Wednesday and try to contact by phone the customers we short list. This is so we can give customers notice and confirm the time and date. We will write to all short listed customers confirming this, whether we speak to them or not.
If a customer has been successfully short listed their bid status changes to ‘short listed’ and they will now be able to see the time as well as the date of the viewing, if they check their Birmingham Home Choice account.
There is more information regarding short listing on the
FAQ fact sheet or in our user guide.