To support residents to move house, we offer and support mutual exchanges. A mutual exchange allows you to ‘swap’ your home with another council or housing association resident.
Who can apply?
We allow all of our residents to apply for a mutual exchange. There are some reasons why we may refuse an exchange, these include:
- You owe rent
- You are in the process of being evicted (having your tenancy ended early)
- The home you want to move to has more bedrooms than you need
- The home you want to move to is too small – moving in would make it overcrowded
- The home you want to move to has disabled adaptations which you do not need
- There are special conditions on who lives in the home
- Your tenancy does not allow a mutual exchange
Preparing for a mutual exchange
Before you start looking for a home or submit your mutual exchange application, it’s important to read through our ‘Your Guide to Mutual Exchange’ leaflet, which includes a handy checklist to help you prepare.
The guide explains which repairs you’re responsible for completing before applying for a mutual exchange, as well as any repairs you need to report to our Repairs team for us to carry out.
Following the checklist will help make sure your home is in an acceptable condition before you apply and can help prevent delays with your application.
You can download ‘Your Guide to Mutual Exchange’ here.
How do I find an exchange?
You will need to find a suitable home to swap with.
You can use HomeSwapper free of charge to find homes that you can swap with.
Before you agree to accept the home you find, you should:
- Make sure you can afford the moving costs and heating and running costs of the new home
- Thoroughly inspect the home. These are generally accepted as seen, so make sure you’re happy with the condition before you accept this
- Check with the new landlord what the rent is
- What the type of tenancy is and the conditions of the tenancy agreement
Making an application
Once you’ve completed any repairs, are confident your home is in an acceptable condition and have found a home you’d like to exchange with, you must apply to all landlords involved for permission to proceed with the mutual exchange.
All landlords must give their approval in writing before the exchange can go ahead. From us receiving the completed application forms to the date you can move usually takes around 8–10 weeks.
Each resident involved in the mutual exchange must complete an application form. For example, in a two-way mutual exchange, both you and the incoming resident must complete a form. For a four-way mutual exchange, all four residents must each complete an application form.
If you are ready to apply for a mutual exchange, please complete the form below:
If you can’t complete the form online, please get in touch with our Neighbourhood and Estates team, who would be more than happy to help. You can call 0300 3300 900, choosing options 3 and 1 or enter extension number 7333 when prompted or email myarea@havebury.com
What happens next?
From the point of receiving all application forms, we have up to six weeks to advise you if any of the grounds are preventing your move. This is to confirm we are allowing or rejecting the exchange to proceed, it is not the final decision.
Our aim is to complete all exchanges within 10 weeks, and we will keep you informed throughout the process if this needs to change.
We will not allow an exchange to complete if the home is in an unsafe and or poor condition. We may require you to complete or pay for works to repair damage, replace missing fittings or return your home to a standard condition.