Many councils and housing asscoiations have opted out of providing information to their tenants wishing to do a mutual exchange. Tenants are now expected to find their own mutual exchange and make the necessary arrangements which are then agreed by the landlord or denied.

Is your landlord a council or a housing association if so and you are unhappy with your current accommodation then you can arrange a Council Home Swap with another council or housing association tenant. There are some housing association properties that do have the right to buy, so if that is a specific requirement for you when considering a mutual exchange verify this with the tenant in question. A mutual exchange between tenants could very well be the quickest if not only way of moving to a property and/ or of your choice. Can you afford not to register your property online if you are in the market for a Mutual Exchange? Almost all local councils and housing associations have stopped providing their aid for their tenants wanting a mutual exchange. Without lists of properties available for exchange being compiled and maintained by social landlords many do not know where to turn to find a mutual exchange. In many cases the information has to be acquired online by the indiviaul tenant which is time consuming and in some cases very confusing.

Once you have found your mutual exchange you need to inform your landlord, who then has 42 days within which to disallow or agree the mutual exchange. It may take a much shorter period of time to get the “thumbs up” from your landlord depending on how quickly the housing officer comes to inspect your property. Once the agreement to the mutual exchange has been received the tenant needs to give 28 days notice to his/her landlord of intention to end their tenancy, after this time the exchange date should be set.

When tenants are mutually exchanging the landlords in question try as far as is possible to make sure that non of the tenants are taken advantage of by (any) other. This consists of the landlord inspecting their property to make sure that it is in a good state of repair before agreeing to allow the mutual exchange. Other factors such as: rent arrears; social conduct; under/over occupancy and tenant history are also taken into account by the landlord when agreeing the mutual exchange.

Now that the councils and housing associations do not help to arrange any mutual exchanges there is little recourse to somebody who has mutually exchanged. Make sure that you do have a viewing, more than one to make sure, look out for unfinished work as once you sign the tenancy you will become responsible for it. The housing officer in charge of the property will also have a look to make sure that it is in a reasonable state of repair before agreeing to the mutual exchange.

Being a council or housing association tenant and having the opportunuity to choose the Council House Exchanges area that you wish to live in may sound impossible but it is a fact. As a secured social housing tenant you can arrange your own mutual exchange, choosing the property type, property area, and property size that is appropriate to your current housing requirements. This is restricted by the underoccupancy and overcrowding rules in forced by the landlords involved.