Help on a mutual exchange please

SamanthaH

I am hoping to do a mutual exchange with someone i know.He lives alone in a 3 bedroom house and i have a 2 bedroom flat with my partner and 2 year old son.I have spoken to my H/A and they will allow him to have the 1 extra room but he is with a council and there are doubts as to whether we would be allowed the 1 extra bedroom there.Has anyone else done a mutual exchange where you will have a spare room and was it allowed.I know it is at there discretion wether they allow it.The council will be benefiting by getting a single person out of a 3 bedroom house and a family in.It is sandwell homes who own the property.Any help or advice will be very much appreciated thanks.

carefullycautious

Go for it you should have no problem at all.

squinty

According to their policy they will not allow you to underoccupy. See

http://www.sandwellhomes.org.uk/Documents/documents/PoliciesPlansStrategiesReports/HousingAllocationsPolicy.pdf

See the mutual exchange policy on page 25, and the schedule on page 28.

SamanthaH

Thanks for the info but do you know if they have any leeway at all with the criteria as i have heard that in most cases some councils will allow 1 extra room as my H/A is allowing with the guy who we are doing the exchange with =D

teeni

He will be in a different situation to you because he is giving up a three bed property. many allocation policies allow for this. The situation for you is different as you are going to be under occupying a three bed property which could be used for a larger famiy. If the policy does not specify that this is allowed then they would be in breech of their allocation policy and at risk of this being legally challenged by others on the housing list