Mutual Exchange
Mutual Exchanges
Mutual exchanges allow both Council and Registered Providers (commonly known as Housing Association) tenants to swap their homes with each other. It may be to move to a different area or just to move to a different type of property type or different size.
To exchange, consent must be given by all landlords involved.
We have put together some helpful tips and suggestions for you, please read them here before applying to exchange. We offer our tenants a free subscription to one of the largest Home Swap websites in the country. Please register now at homeswapper.co.uk where you will find properties all over the country to swap with.
Already Found a swap ?
Once you have found a home that you would like to exchange to, all households involved must complete the online application form on the homeswapper.co.uk website.
If you are already registered with Homeswapper.co.uk and have found an exchange, please click the “Found a Swap” button which will be showing on your dashboard as it does on the image below. From here, you simply complete the application form and click submit.
Not one of our tenants or not on Homeswapper?
If you or your exchange partners (tenants involved in the swap), do not have an account with Homeswapper.co.uk or you are not a Basildon Council Tenant, but have found a swap, please contact htr.housing@basildon.gov.uk and we will send you a link so that you can apply for the swap without having to register. If you don’t have time to complete in 24 hrs you can simply register your email and create a password and go back later.
After you have created your password, you will then see a list of your mutual exchange applications. Click on the link as shown below and continue or log back in later to complete the process.
Finally, for security reasons, you now need to confirm your last name and postcode. This ensures the application is really yours.
If the name and postcode you enter are correct, your account is verified, and you will be taken to the SwapTracker Application form.
If your last name and postcode are not recognised, you may need to contact the mutual exchange team again htr.housing@basildon.gov.uk so they can re-send an invite with the correct information
You are not permitted to move home until you have received written confirmation and all agreements by all landlords involved, have been completed.
Once approved, please ensure you that you revisit the property that you wish to move to and are happy with everything. We will not clear rubbish left by an outgoing tenant or rectify any conditions that you have signed to accept.
Before applying
Basildon Council tenants
Ensure all internal doors are installed before any property inspection and that all rooms are easily accessible. At least one of those named on the tenancy agreement must be at the property during the inspection.
If you have made alterations to your current property other than general decoration, you may be asked to return the property to its original condition even if permission was previously granted. Alterations may be partition walls or perhaps handrails or doors have been removed or you have non-standard fixtures and fittings such as spotlights, decking, garden sheds or pergolas
If the property does require any remedial work, we reserve the right to cancel the exchange application until this has been remedied.
All applicants
Once we have started the exchange, you will be able to view the progress via the online Swaptracker software.
If an application is given conditional approval, we reserve the right to cancel the application if the conditions have not been met within a given timescale and new applications would need to be completed.