Council homeswapper experience?

[TheWildOnesNeverDie]

Iv lived by the coast for 9 years but fancy a change and want to move back to be near to friends and family - I live in a council property and can’t afford to private rent so got on to homeswapper so I could see if anyone fancies swapping houses ...
it’s been a few months but someone is interested in my home and wants to come and view it this week. All fine, her home is also lovely and I’d jump at swapping.

Has anyone successfully swapped their council house? What should I be aware of? Is there anything you wish you knew? I have no idea what To expect and it feels a bit scary as it’s not particularly monitored as no money is being exchanged etc.

Any experiences would help me greatly. Thankyou :)

talk to a few of the neighbors ask what its like to live there

I tried it, got a ton of people coming to visit. Most of them just wanting a day out and weren't actually serious about it. I got one lady who thought she could hand mine back to the council in exchange for her preferred area before moving in.

Good luck though, you might get lucky.

I’ve swapped through homeswapper on 2 occasions. Both straight swaps, 3/4/5 ways are ridiculously complicated and not for me. Was a simple process.

The only thing to be aware of-and this happened on both my swaps- is that the tenant you are swapping with seems to give less of a shit about there house when they’ve agreed to the swap. (First swap they left 4 weeks worth of dog shit in the back garden for me to clear, second swap they left ten ton of shit they didn’t want in the house).

Remember they can back out up until the last minute and anyone with rent arrears can’t swap so make sure you ask the question. We went all the way from Lincolnshire to Torquay to view a potential swap and when as we were leaving she said I’m 3 months in rent arrears so do you think they’ll be okay-we we’re not best pleased!

Well the lady is umming and ahhing already about it, which is frustrating but expected as it’s a fair way from where she lives!

I just wondered about the actual process - when you say ‘back out at the last minute’ are we talking when the movers are getting the stuff or before contracts are signed?

And also check what kind of tenancy they're on. I'm not absolutely sure but they don't give life time tenancys out now do they? I don't know if the swapping tenancys thing came into force when houseswapping. Its worth checking if you have a life time one.

My DB and sil got messed about quite a lot and someone backed out 2 days before swapping after they'd packed everything! It worked out for them in the end though and a now have a lovely house

I’ve swapped many times. I was a bit addicted to it years ago! Unfortunately people can back out right up until you take physical possession of the property. I have heard tales of people having the moving van all loaded and the other person backing out! But thankfully it doesn’t happen too often and never happened to me. I would say that if the other person is already unsure, then it’s unlikely to happen. There are a lot of people who will go through the process then change their minds.

My last swap was a 4 way. It wasn’t really anymore complicated than a 2 way to be honest. Just riskier as I was relying on more people. But through my many swaps I am now in a beautiful home in a great area so it was worth it. I won’t move again now unless it’s to downsize when I’m elderly!

The things to be aware of are obviously the swap has to take place in one day so you need to be fully packed and ready the night before. Keep one box with bedding and tea making things so if you’re exhausted when you get to the new place you can just make up your bed and have a cuppa! Discuss what fixtures/fittings will be going or staying. For example if there are things like non standard light fittings, curtain rails etc. Check out the local area as much as possible. Make sure there’s no outstanding repairs as you accept the house “as is” so nothing that was already broken will be repaired. As a pp said, check the tenancy agreement. I nearly moved to one place that was owned by a charitable housing association and they had a clause that I would have to move out if I earned over 30k. I didn’t at the time but I later did so I’m glad I didn’t move there! There will probably be disappointments along the way. You do sometimes have to persevere for a long time! But when it works it is really worth it.

@gamerchick we have a lifetime tenancy and this is our first council property, we’ve been here four years. They do but usually only for the older properties - nowadays the new builds are ‘assured tenancies’ which is essentially the same as being ‘secure’.

@Meruem oh wow ! I don’t think I could ever get addicted to moving house I hate it 😆

I think this is already unlikely to go ahead, I think the potential swapper has rushed into it and now is getting cold feet ! Annoying for us as we got our hopes up and ideas of a fresh start, although also made us worry we will miss what we have here, it’s an absolutely fabulous property and garden.
Still, maybe something else will come up one day.

We are open to multiswaps, but I think only if someone else was leading the charge on it! Trying to chat to a few people has been like getting blood out of stone !

This is what I was wondering though, do the council inspect your property ? We have made some changes and I have heard tales of being forced to change everything back by housing inspectors. Also with repairs - does that mean everything?? So things that are the housing association’s responsibility will now be the tenants..?

Thankyou for your kind words, we will persevere ! You never know what’s around the corner :)

Technically the council could ask you to change stuff back if they want to be picky but generally, as long as it's an improvement, then they just need the other people to say they accept it as it is. This is where the repair issue comes in. So say you had installed a new kitchen, the other person moves in and a cupboard falls off the wall, the council wouldn't fix that because it isn't council installed. Do you see what I mean? Or if in the new place there was a door hanging off and you accepted that, they wouldn't then fix it. But of course any new issues so say a leaky pipe, then yes they would fix that.

The way to look at any disappointments with people pulling out etc is to just think it wasn't meant to be and you will get somewhere even better for you in the end. That's what happened with me. I remember one house I lost out on, I was devastated. But when I look back now, it was for the best. Good luck!

Ahh yes I see.

And yes absolutely ! It’s definitely turned into a positive and I know there’s better things ahead. But it does feel like ‘oh, well the life i was planning there has suddenly gone’ 😂 all five minutes of my planning down the swanny!

Thankyou