Mutual exchanges?

[kid]

Does anybody know of any good websites that I could possibly find a mutual exchange on? After having baby number 2, I need an extra bedroom!

Exchange of what? Houses? R

YES! www.council-exchange.org.uk - not just for council houses but for housing association tenants as well. It's one of the biggest and best sites for mutual exchanges - I found mine on there the first time I visited the site and had moved 6 weeks later!

Good luck

After all this time I am still looking for an exchange. DD (4.5) and DS (17 months) share a bedroom and the council have already told me they won't move us for at least 10 years! By that time DD will be almost 15.
I have joined all sorts of exchange schemes but still nothing

Have you asked the council if they will nominate you to a housing association? There are some HA's who will accept self referrals. I think Housing21 do. They are mostly sheltered accommodation, but do family housing too, and have places dotted all over. Quite a few in London,some in Grays, Luton,Hampshire, and I can't remember the rest (I used to be a tenant of theirs).

lou33

I was on the list for council or HA, not sure if I still am now though. I did receive a letter this morning saying I have been accepted for HOMESWAP. I think they have a website too so I'm hoping to get some response from that. It seems that nothing is happening at the moment though.

kid, did you register on council-exchange.org.uk?

Whereabouts do you live by the way?

anyone want my flat? go on, its great!!!! look on the council exchange board in herts.

do you have any medical reasons to move? I was in a two bedroom house, had DS, and was pregnant with DD1. As DS has Cerebral Palsy, I put into move on the grounds that my stairs were too steep (they were, house was built pre-1950 and they were very steep and narrow) for Ds to get up and down safely. They told me I had to have a 3 bedroom ground-floor flat or bungalow, well there is only 12 properties in the area like that. I argued the toss, got Social services involved who agreed with me that DS could manage stairs that were not so steep, a week later a letter can though saying that we could use the emergency medical points we had been awarded against a house, phoned the council and was told that another housing office in the area had a 3 bedroom house for us. and here we are, 3 years later!!

Misdee's flat is lovely!!!! Its new and really nice. I'd have it if I didn't have 3 kids!!!

SARAH WHERE IS IT ONLINE???

pub133.ezboard.com/fcouncilexchangefrm29

do u reakon i could get a larger property on the basis that nik coughs and scratches all thro the nights and will keep her sister awake if they were in the same room? i dont fancy having a child in my room for the next 10-15 years just so they can get some sleep.

Although I don't have direct experience of this situation I know of someone who has.

The street I live in has housing association flats in it. At one point two of them were empty. One had three bedrooms the other had 2 bedrooms. A woman I know applied for the three bedroomed house as she had two sons aged 15 and 5 and she was told that she couldn't have the three bedroomed flat because since she had same sex children, i.e two boys they could easily share a room. I personally think that is appalling.

What made it even more annoying for her was the fact that a few months previously a couple with two small boys aged 3 and 1 were given a 3 bedroomed flat. We never could work out why they had got the flat as there were no medical reasons for the small boys not to share. Surely it would have been sensible for the woman I know with a teenager and a small child to have 3 bedrooms so that the older son could have some privacy but not in the eyes of the housing association unfortunately.

It's a strange situation. I know that I was 9 and my brother was 6 when we were moved from a 2 bedroomed flat into a 3 bedroomed one. But nowadays they seem happy to leave families all cramped up until the older child is on the verge of moving out before they give them a bigger house. Maybe that's their plan if they wait long enough the older child will move out and they won't need to move the family.

spacemonkey
I hav registered with them, I live in Hackney, East London.
We don't have any medical reasons to move.
I really love my flat but there just isn't enough space for all of us. I know of somebody that was over crowded and the council told her that her son (5) didn't need a bedroom, he could sleep on the sofa in the living room because it was over a certain size!!!
It is just so hard to get a bigger place. On lady on that council-exchange was interested in my place, I replied to her but she seems to have vanished!
I won't give up yet though!

We have the same problem but in Lambeth. The reason they are slow at moving people is because the legal definition of overcrowding is disgusting. According to my HO you can have up to two adults per living area, so in my two bed flat legally we have to have over 6 adults to be over the limit, 2 in each bedroom and two in the living room. Children are counted as half a person until a certain age (which I can't remember! sorry).

Exchanging is a good idea, we're trying to do that too, but there is not many people wanting to downsize and lots of people wanting more rooms( and a garden and CH please).

Selling all the housing off under right-to-buy, and not building any more was a bit stupid too.

I get really angry, the cost of housing around here is out of control. We're not poverty stricken - we don't qualify for any benefits, but there is no way we can ever afford to get onto the housing market - 3 bedroom house is around 200,000 at the cheapest. I just feel trapped, but I suppose at least I have somewhere.

the half person thing is weird something like babies never used to count then from about 18 months to 7 or 9 they were half a person then after that they were a person!!!!! will try to look for the thing i had later for u
good luck trying to move but keep trying to get into housing assoc as well we got into one ( we in tower hamlets)