Council exchange, is this legal?

iwantagarden

Hi newbie here :wave: I hope you guys can help me. We have a friend who lives up the road who is exchanging houses with a family member. This family member is then giving the house back to the council as they are buying a house instead. We currently live in a 1st floor flat with no garden and as you can see by my user name i really want one for my son!! So our friend has said we may be able to sort something out where his family member then swaps with us and gives 'our' flat back to the council. I would so love to do this and see nothing wrong with it as the council is still getting a 2 bed property back at the end of the day. But im worried its not legal? Hope someone can shed some light on this for me, thankyou.

teeni

THis is called a mutual exchange and is perfeectly legal, you both have to apply to the authority to grant the exchange, and provided the exchange does not cause

under/over occupancy on either property,

there are no rent arrears on either side

either properties have not got disabled adaptations that are not required by the new tenants

And no possession action has been started for any reason against either tenant

there is no reason why it shouild not be allowed.

only problem i can see here is whether the tenant will be allowed to exchange twice, it may be best to try a three way exchange so that the one who is giving up the property ends up in your flat. needs some negotiating but is possible

In fact this is usually the quickest way of acheiving a transfer in social housing.

if both parties agree contact the housing department and get the relavant forms.

Good luck

Tenni

seven-day-weekend

I hope you get your house with a garden! Please let us know how you get on.