Downsize council tenant

ashandang

Hi all up until about 8 months ago me my partner and my son shared a three bedroom council property. My partner left and now it is just me and my 4 year old son in this 3 bedroom house and it's just too big! What i'm wondering is if i was to ring the council and tell them i would like to move to a 2 bed property whether they would to free up the 3 bed house for someone that needs it? I've heard that there are even incentives for doing this with certain councils? My council is blackburn with darwen and the houses are twin valley homes.
Cheers
Ang

poppysarah

Ring up and see.

ashandang

poppysarah wrote: »

Ring up and see.

I Will tomorrow but as it's a sunday and they aren't open so was maybe hoping for a bit of advice before i ring them.

carefullycautious

Have you looked at mutual exchange as you will then be able to have some say in where you are going to.

ALthough if your local authority do do an incentive scheme the money would be handy for moving. I expect you will end up on a transfer list.

ashandang

carefullycautious wrote: »

Have you looked at mutual exchange as you will then be able to have some say in where you are going to.

ALthough if your local authority do do an incentive scheme the money would be handy for moving. I expect you will end up on a transfer list.

No i've not looked into mutual exchange but will have a google now!
Thanks

carefullycautious

somebody will snap you hands off for a 3bed.

Also check the Policeuk web site and put in the post code you can check the crime rate for the area. Very informative if there is any anti social behaviour going on.

Good luck

ashandang

carefullycautious wrote: »

somebody will snap you hands off for a 3bed.

Also check the Policeuk web site and put in the post code you can check the crime rate for the area. Very informative if there is any anti social behaviour going on.

Good luck

I'm hoping so it's too big for two of us. I've just stumbled across homeswapper uk and wondering whether or not to register. My landlord is a member and it says if you sign up then you're landlord will send you details of other 2bed properties in the area.

ashandang

I've also just this minute found out on monday (tomorrow) a friend of mine who lives just down the road in a 2 bed council house with the same landlord is handing his notice in and moving on to private property so when i give them a ring tomorrow i'll be mentioning this. Logically you would think they would transfer thus freeing up a 3 bed house but i very much doubt it!

Old_Git

ashandang wrote: »

I've also just this minute found out on monday (tomorrow) a friend of mine who lives just down the road in a 2 bed council house with the same landlord is handing his notice in and moving on to private property so when i give them a ring tomorrow i'll be mentioning this. Logically you would think they would transfer thus freeing up a 3 bed house but i very much doubt it!

you may find this property has already been allocated ,but you can only ask

ashandang

Old_Git wrote: »

you may find this property has already been allocated ,but you can only ask

Well he hasn't informed them as of yet and tomorrow will be the first they have heard of him leaving the property. I will update tomorrow what they say. Has anyone on here downsized with the council? And if so were they particularly helpful?
Cheers
Ang

vintagebrighton

I haven't downsized with the council but I have mutually exchanged 3 times via homeswapper. Each time was very successful. I had to pay to join but I believe if your landlord is a member of the scheme you don't have to pay, you just have to wait for your landlord to approve your membership. The only reason to exchange rather than downsizing via the council is you'd get to choose rather than being allocated something you may not be happy with. Having said that, some council's used to give you money if you gave up a bedroom but not sure if they do that now. Good luck with it, and as someone else has said, you'll get the pick of the nicest properties if you exchange - loads of people want to move up from a 2 bed to a 3 bed as getting allocated a bigger property or bidding for it with the council is a long, hard process!