Housing association transfer

[YourGladSquid]

Hi everyone - just checking if anyone has experience with this as I don’t know anyone in a position similar to mine.

4 years ago I moved into a housing association flat with my DD and while I’m extremely grateful, the block of flats comes with quite a few issues I wasn’t aware of, the main one being ASB/drug use (the first floor is basically where all addicts are, for whatever reason). The communal area does get serviced weekly but within a day it’s trashed again, it’s honestly embarrassing to have anyone over that has to climb through the first flight of stairs.

My plan was to wait until DD was off to uni and then just move into private renting, but I wasn’t aware transfers are a thing until very recently. In the meantime DD has also decided to study fully from home for the next 3 years.

So my question is: would we be able to be considered for a transfer even though we’re both adults? I’m not sure if this is “a thing” or how to approach it.

It’s just that we feel generally unsafe, the building is in an awful location for us due to health reasons for my DD (although a good location generally, very central), I can’t buy it so I’m starting to feel discouraged with sinking money on decorating, it’s really noisy… the works.

Again, I’m very happy we were even offered anything, I’m just trying to line up options.

Have a look at Homeswapper. You can relocate to anywhere in the UK so long as your council or housing association is registered with them.

Yes, you can apply for a transfer. Whether you are successful is a whole other story.

I work for a HA and our tenants can bid on our website for properties we have available. I'm sure your HA must do something similar.

Thank you, I’ll contact them and see what I can do (it’s really hard to get a hold of my neighbourhood officer and I’ve never gotten an email reply…).

I know home swap is an option but I honestly can’t see who’d swap with me - not because of the flat itself, but the building/neighbours.

I’ve been keeping an eye out but I don’t think my place is very popular for swapping due to being a flat 😞everyone seems to want a house/more bedrooms.

/drug use (the first floor is basically where all addicts are, for whatever reason

Probably so they dont leave a sink or the bath running while drunk or high and flood the tenant underneath

Honestly that’s not even the worst I can think of, I’m always worried one day someone will fall asleep with cigarettes/anything of the sort lit or with a gas cooker on and we’ll all be blown to bits 😭

Plus I’ve had some very dodgy people knocking on my doors/trying to get in (I’m guessing they came to the wrong floor for pick ups, I don’t know).

I once posted on here that i was worried about my ex druggie neighbour burning scented candles and got laughed at.

I have nothing against them and I don’t want to come off as snobby or anything of the sort as everyone should have a place to live, but I also don’t think it’s smart to house families in the same building where drug use happens openly. I wasn’t aware at the time otherwise I would have passed up on the property tbh.

Most HAs wouldn't have their neighbourhood officer doing anything with transfers anyway. For mine you have an online account and register on there and then bid. Unless you are with a tiny HA which might be different.

I think this one might be one of the tiny ones, there’s barely anything on their website and even the repairs online bit rarely works.