House Swap

[TwoFirTreesToday]

Has anyone ever managed a house swap?

It has been suggested that we could do this and I was wondering if any of you had any hints/tips/horror tales or had even just heard that it can happen? I wonder what the potential complications are. Its fairly unusual to find two people in the correct situation to do a swap and i have never heard of anyone doing it before. Any info welcome!

I know people who have done this successfully. I have nothing more to add but hopefully this will bump you.

Depends if you are renting or selling. Know it happens fairly regularly with council tenants (we have just had a horror move in upstairs on this basis) but it is less easy to sort out on private homes.

We are selling, we would buy theirs and they would buy ours. I didnt explain very well did I!

I know people who have done this. One of my neighbours swapped with another flat on the next floor up. There was quite a big price difference, but you only pay stamp duty on the higher amount so you save a fair percentage that way.

my uncle did this - it was a few years ago but as far as I know it went very well and I think they didn't have to pay stamp duty...? Not sure about that. They definitely didn't have to pay estate agents fees as they arranged it privately, so apart from solicitors fees etc it was an almost free move (so rare these days!)

I think the main thing is to take all the same precautions as you would with a normal sale - you both need to get proper independent surveys and valuations. There is a tendency to think "oh it's all amongst friends" and not worry as much, but that will only lead to trouble!

My friend is doing this, she exchanges next week. No complications at all. It was just luck - they viewed someone's house and loved it, she liked the sound of theirs and went to look at it, and liked it. Otherwise, it's pretty much like a normal sale/purchase, but without any chain.