Chance of a lifetime or too good to be true? Notting Hill, London flat.

[Springingintolife]

Sorry, long one, but trying not to drip-feed.

I'm on homeswapper and have been a while as I feel very cut off where I live due to not driving, having an illness (fibromyalgia and hypermobility) and not being close to the bus stops to just nip about and do things with my nearly 5 year old daughter.

What I have is a 2 bed semi with front and back garden and a drive in a semi rural area on the outskirts of a large town in the south east. Ten minutes drive from the beach and can get into London within an hour. I feel you have to have quite a bit of money here to have a good quality of life with a child, as everything has entry fees and needs driving to, or takes quite a while on public transport.

That's the reason I've been on homeswapper. I have looked at some places and talked to people about swaps before but they haven't worked out for various reasons. I've never pulled out on anyone- apart from one flat which was splashed on the front page of a local paper for having serious mould issues, just after the swap was approved.

Someone has contacted me with a one bedroom ground floor flat in a very very posh road next to Notting Hill, with a private garden, and I'm having a think about whether this would be the change I would need. The reason they want to move is they don't have RTB and they want to buy somewhere. (Let's leave the RTB debate out of this conversation please!). I have RTB but as I'm not able to work full time at the moment, it wouldn't be something I could make the most of.

Positives about the swap- I grew up on the other side of London so it's familiar. Has a garden still. Smaller flat so less cleaning and maintenance. They seem to think the tenancy gives the right to do work to the flat and thinks the living room could be converted to two bedrooms, so potential future bedroom issues may not be an issue. Free public transport for children. Free museums so things to do at the weekend. Lovely parks with paddling pools in London. My brother lives on the other side of London and is expecting a child with his DP so closer to a cousin for my DD and could afford to visit regularly. Get to be in an affluent area so if I wanted to do some part time work like tutoring or cleaning, I could charge a decent amount. Might meet rich handsome man. Can access universities if I decide to go back to studying one day. More going on. More inspiring area to keep me motivated and improve mental/physical health on nice walks. Always somewhere new to see. DD is mixed race so would be in a more diverse area.

Negatives- losing the RTB but potentially could swap again when DD is a teenager. Losing a bedroom and would need to do work in the future to create an extra space and can't guarantee I would be earning enough to fund it. Flat doesn't have double glazing so might be colder in the winter and cost more to heat. Although I looked online and has same energy rating as mine. Potentially smaller space to heat. Person said they would take everything with them including the oak flooring, so I'd have to move in with potentially a concrete floor and put carpet onto a credit card, although cost of this would be offset by not having to buy a car and learn to drive more imminently. Housing association don't have great reviews online for repairs, but looks like person has spent a lot of money installing new things into the property. (Apart from the oak floor, which they say they're taking). Possibly having noisy neighbours above us. Although I already have a shouty next door neighbour anyway. We lose the beach, but it's cold most of the year anyway. We lose the countryside, but I don't manage to get out and about in it enough anyway.

However, I don't know about the area these days, as I left London years ago and I hear it's changed a lot, so I wanted some honest mumsnet experience.

You are probably in a depressing SE suburb like I am on a family housing estate. But you should stay where you are. Your daughter has her own room which she needs to have and in time you will both build connections and a support network. You need to focus on what you do have rather than the negatives. There are great schools here and the countryside and the beaches. Those last two are the highlights for me. I moved here when my son was young to give us a better life away from where I grew up (not London).

Begins with B, ends with Crescent?

So, the vast majority of those houses are not subdivided, they are fully owned and cost £6million plus. For the people that live in them, they aren't even their only property.

The area caters to their needs and not yours.

Swap by all means but don't downsize or move to a more expensive area as it will soon become a massive problem.

Ends in Road.

Notting Hill is considered “posh” but actually it is a v mixed area and has absolutely tonnes of social housing including in B Crescent. I know this as I spent many years allocating flats there. Yes there are posh coffee shops but there are also cheap caffes! And the market is a real mixture.
public transport is plentiful and cheap too.
it’s a great area. I still travel through it regularly. And carnival is what you make it plus at most it’s a week of chaos until it’s over and as always august bank holiday you can just book a weekend away or like someone else had suggested make a couple of hundred charging people a tenner to use your loo.

All seems a bit unrealistic and uncertain, particularly in terms of your finances and physical health.

Thank you. It's not a council house, it's housing association but I'm hoping to contact them on Monday and find out more.

From my experience of swaps it can work. My best friend swapped from a small 2 bedroom ground floor council flat to a 2-3 bedroom council house years ago and I think she got permission to turn one of the bedrooms into two. She was thrilled because it’s a proper old fashioned well built council house with a good sized back garden, large kitchen diner area and good sized living room. Plus a front garden. She’s done RTB on it and converted the loft space too.

Please do as the criteria I posted applies to housing association properties as well as council.

Hoping everything works out for you

You really need to view the flat and surrounding area. Then speak to the HA. The one I worked for wouldn't let you exchange to be overcrowded - the current tenant may be correct that it's a 2 person property but that means a couple with one double bedroom, not parent and child who each qualify for their own bedroom. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Thank you. I had a look on street view and found some cheap working class style cafes, mini eastern european supermarkets, and a chip shop, without even having to walk through any rough estates. There's multiple Lidls and Aldis not far too. Yes I'd have to take a bus or tube but I do now anyway with the buses. Where I live now, my nearest shop within walking distance cost me £5 for an aubergine, two large tomatoes and a modest bunch of spring onions. I usually have to get a deliveroo of co-op which is crazy expensive, to get a top up shop.

I lived in Elephant & Castle long before ir got gentrified, it was really rough, and poor. A tin of tomatoes in the corner shop was something like 18p. I was persuaded to move into a flat share just off Regents Park, it was lovely round there, but a tin of tomatoes in the corner shop was nearly 30p! That's what had me scurrying back to my poor, unfashionable neighbourhoods just south of the river.

Thank you, I'll have a little look.

And check what else she's taking. If she's taking the floors she could be taking anything!

Yeah that's what I was thinking! 🤣

I just had a little search of two bed places in the area and one came up in B Cresent. What's that like?

I don’t know anything about swaps and I’m not entirely sure where you’re looking, but I lived around that area for a while and loved it. Lots of parks, a couple of leisure centres. Not sure who was queuing to get into Hyde Park 😂I’ve never done that even in the peak of summer! If the rent wasn’t astronomical I would move back today. Good luck and if it works out I hope you meet your future husband 😉 PM me if you want.

Countryside and beaches are great, but can be inaccessible without a car.

I think people are missing the huge advantage of cheap (and free for children) public transport in London.
OP has tried to highlight how much it is currently costing her to get about and take advantage of stuff where they currently live.

Many people forget that until the 80's Notting Hill was a huge steaming turd of a shithole, gentrification and de-industrialisation happened (used to be a lot of factories in NH, but its not all lovely even now!!

Agreed.
Sorry, but the idea that a housing estate in a depressing SE suburb being preferable to Notting Hill because of an extra bedroom is really quite 🤯

Thank you lovely. I will do! I think even if I can't move into the one bed or it seems unreasonable in reality, I'll look around that aware. The woman messaging me has opened my eyes to it!

So thank you to the posters pushing me to have a look at 2 beds in the area. There are some, but nowhere near as nice as the one bedroom, and that road is absolutely stunning. But I will contact a few and see how it goes. There's just something about it- dream flat with garden if you know what I mean. Unless she takes even the bathtub out and everything, and I can't convert the living room eventually 🤣

Hate to break it to you but the HA/council won't allow you to swap to somewhere smaller than your needs. You have a child therefore you will only be allowed a 2 bed.

Are they allowed? When I did a home swap my housing association said I HAD to rip up the brand new carpets. Think they have had too many issues with fleas in the past

OP: what do you do for work?

Schools in that area are very good, some of the best in the country, so might be worth moving for those alone.

But because central London has lots of very hard-working, clever, ambitious people (sometimes without the legal right to work, so willing to work for low pay) it can be more difficult to find well-paid, consistent work with reasonable hours. Eg most cleaners in central London earn less per hour and have to travel more and deal with more demanding employers than their counterparts in other towns in the south east.