Can I request a transfer from one housing association to another?

[FireCrotch69]

Hi everyone

I currently live in Cornwall, but following my Dads passing and now my parents in law are about to divorce - my mother in law has no where to live. We are desperate to move back to be closer to family and friends and get our support network back.

My MIL may have to move in with us As she has no money and her job is low paid.

We are thinking of moving back to where we used to live - up in Worcestershire.

We currently live in a secure tenancy housing association/council house - if we move we will find jobs nearby as have lots of friends and a support network up there. Down here we are struggling.

I know we can apply to exchange but this relies on someone wanting to downsize to our very small bungalow, and there are so many things that can go wrong in the process.

I’m sure I’ve heard of people transferring to elsewhere within their tenancy, or at least remaining in council housing ....

Does anyone know the ins and outs ? Would it be possible ?

Bump :)

There's no problem moving between different SH groups
in my area, op.
I'd just ring your S.housing team up and ask them.

As far as I know, this isn't something that is possible. I have exchanged twice though - once from a two bed flat into a 3 bed house (we went from one town to another to do that, we desperately needed the space), then again a few years later to another house on another town (that was a 3 way swap, a total pain to organise, but we did it!). It can be a hard and bitterly disappointing process, however we got where we wanted to be in the end. I would start off on Homeswapper (national home swap website) and go from there. I think most housing associations will let you exchange to somewhere with one bedroom more than you technically need (this is what we did so that autistic DD could have her own room apart from her younger sister - 8 years difference, them sharing was not an option!)

Should add that I mean the housing association won't transfer you, but you can definitely exchange/swap with someone from another housing association!!

@PorterBella when you say it’s no problem - are your SH groups close together (ie, counties next to each other, or within the same county?)

@slavetolife yes I’m on HomeSwapper, I met with someone and viewed their house but it wasn’t suitable for us :/ I don’t think we are allowed an extra bedroom without a good enough reason. They seem to crack down on that a lot.

My housing officer here is not very nice, I haven’t had issues with her personally but she has been quite jobsworthy to my neighbours who are lovely

When I did my swap I don't think I really had anything to do with a housing officer - just saw houses and agreed a swap and submitted the paperwork! I'd check about the extra room, there really wasn't a problem for me to do it - how many people are in your household currently? I will also point out that when I was in my flat it took 5 years (!!!) to find a suitable swap...

My grandparents were able to move from their Dorset council house to one in Oxfordshire. IIRC, it was by contacting the place they wanted to move to.

I'm in Worcestershire, and the main housing association in my area is Rooftop, so I'd call them (or if north Worcs whoever it is there) and ask how it could work.

It was between different counties, op - Hampshire and Dorset.

On Homeswapper there's people looking to move from various counties
to a different county.

Look up the council in the area you want to move to and see if you can apply to be on their housing register online

Thankyou everyone !

I have applied for homeswapper again (my application is 6 months old) and also applied for the seperate council areas also. We would love Worcestershire but open to close by areas too as I know them well.

Annoyingly we’ve lived here for 7 years so don’t have a ‘local’ connection anymore, that and my dad died so my connection has gone even though it still feels very much there. :(

Fingers crossed! X

You have to apply for the housing register in the county you want to live.

You can also hope for a mutual exchange. Cornwall is quite desirable.

Be aware that if you are on housing benefit and moving out of county it will probably trigger a claim to universal credit.

You can move to a house with extra bedroom on MUEX but you would need to demonstrate you could afford extra rent. You wouldn't get housed from housing register into house you would under occupy.

Thankyou @Wellandtrulyoutnumbered I’m not on any benefits so shouldn’t be affected by that :)

I swapped from Leicester to Kent in May I was on homeswapper but the swap happened because of an Ad I put on Gumtree it's between 2 different HAs, it took a long old time but I'm here .
As far as I know there is no point applying to be on the register if you're already housed