Anyone done a home swap?

[JarlBalgruuf]

We are looking to swap our HA flat for something in a better area (literally any area would be better)

A lot of other people's places seem to be freshly decorated, brand new everything, etc. and I don't think they are going to want to swap with our place. We have only decorated one room and whoever did the previous painting did a terrible job. The bathroom is really badly done as well. The silicon is really messy so is starting to go black and there is a crack in the plastic bath and the surround falls off.
The kitchen is also more than 10 years old, surfaces are a bit shabby and stained.
The one advantage we do have is it's a ground floor flat with no stairs so is disabled accessible.

I don't know how much responsibility for the bath and stuff the HA have, and I accept that I will probably have to do some painting, but I can't be replacing a whole bathroom just to give the place to someone else.

So my question: have you swapped a house? What condition were they both in? Did you have to do a lot of work before anyone would consider yours? What was the general process like?

Do you mean for a holiday or to actually move house?

To move house, in a HA or council house you can swap with another person in any area.

There is a website called Homeswapper It is run by Councils and HAs so your landlord will know you are wanting to swop (but do not worry about that) The fact that u r ground floor may make your place more attractive to older people as no stairs etc

I haven't houseswapped, but I have prepped a flat to sell.

Silicone on the bath is really easy to replace. Can you fix the surround (if its the bath surround, you can usually seal it back in with silicone too)? If the bath is cracked and leaking, I would think the HA have responsibility for that (I think they usually do kitchen and bathroom fittings?).

Give the place a seriously good scrub - all the surfaces, cupboard fronts, window frames, skirting boards, light switches etc. We repainted the bedroom and hallway in white, which really brightened the place up.

We had a massive declutter, and put out some nice finishing touches for the photos and viewings, like fresh flowers (£2 a bunch in Aldi), and bought a few convincing fake plants from Ikea to brighten up the kitchen and bathroom.

I took photos of the rooms on my phone, when you look at the photos you seem to notice the clutter / wonky pictures / other little things that you don't notice when you are just in the room.

It will need to be equally as good as the place you want to love into, if not better. It may be a ground floor flat but at the end of the day it is a flat and they really are not in demand. I spent all of my childhood and over well over 20 years as an adult in local authority housing and saw lots of friends try for swaps. I lived in a very nice 2 bedroom HA maisonette for 5 years, we did kitchen and bathroom ( with permission) and decorated throughout we finally got a house through being on the waiting list long enough with the LA. Sadly i didn't know anyone who swapped out of their flat to a house.

If you have a look on the website for the HA swaps you will see the properties that people want to swap and as I say if you can't beat what's on offer you will need to do the work to get it good enough to be desirable

Oh and just because it's ground floor it's not necessarily Disabled friendly, my daughter has a disability and for disabled access housing it needs wider doorways, level entry to the house ( no doorsteps ) and a disabled accessible bathroom and kitchens a minimum, if it were as easy as ground floor life would be a lot simpler

AwkwardPaws27

It isn't actually leaking I don't think (it's plastic) but it does creak when you stand in one end and the surround is a bit broken too unfortunately. Just a shoddy job. I could have done better with my eyes shut.

Good ideas on where to clean. The skirting boards need repainted in my opinion. I think the main problem will be keeping it to a standard we can maintain for viewings, etc.

MissCherryCakeyBun

Not specifically looking for a house. A flat would be fine too - our issue right now is being on the ground floor as there are always people walking right past the window and because the area is bad you can't ignore it when things happen.