Mutual exchange
You can swap your council home with a tenant from another council or housing association, this is called a mutual exchange.
A mutual exchange can be agreed anywhere in the country using the HomeSwapper scheme.
HomeSwapper is an online Mutual Exchange service available to all tenants in secure or assured tenancies.
The HomeSwapper service includes:
- An online registration process
- Online property searches
- Automatic property matching and notification of new matches by e-mail and text messaging to members
- Save a property as a favourite
- Google maps of property locations
- Key features of properties are available in several languages.
Please complete the form below when you have found a potential mutual exchange through the Homeswapper scheme.
Apply for a mutual exchange form
If a tenant wants to exchange with the tenant of another landlord, they will need our permission and permission from the other landlord in writing. Please be aware that a mutual exchange cannot take place if you are within the first year of your tenancy agreement (probationary period).
When an application is made it is assessed by the Housing Management team. If any of the following apply your application may be declined:
- You have unpaid rent
- You are the perpetrator of anti-social behaviour
- You have been served with a Notice of Seeking Possession
- You have a Court order against you relating to a breach of your tenancy
We will arrange for a Technical Officer to visit your property to check its size, type and condition. Any damage, unsatisfactory alterations, or missing fixtures and fittings (e.g. removed doors, banisters or balustrades) that are identified during the Technical Inspection must be repaired, removed, and/or reinstated by you. Where fire doors are missing they must be replaced by doors of equal quality and fire resistance.
If you have been asked to do any work as a condition to the exchange, the exchange will not be allowed to complete without a satisfactory re‑inspection by our Technical Officer.
We will also get in touch with any other landlords involved in the exchange to make sure that they agree, that their tenant is eligible to exchange and that all parties are moving to suitable properties. Please bear in mind that it can take time to receive the information from the other landlord/s involved.
If your application is approved your Housing Officer will arrange for you to attend an appointment to sign the relevant paperwork to enable the exchange to proceed.
