Council Home Mutual Exchange
East Devon tenants have the right to exchange their council home with another council or housing association tenant providing both landlords agree.
Finding A Home
East Devon do not hold an exchange register and it is up to you to find some-one who is also looking to exchange. You can also advertise for an exchange in local papers and shops; in the area that you are hoping to move to.
East Devon no longer has its own Internal Mutual Exchange Register, this is because East Devon now subscribes to Homeswapper, this means that all East Devon tenants can subscribe free of charge. If you would like to subscribe or find out more information about Homeswapper then please follow the link below.
Once You Have Found Some-One To Swap With
Once you have found some-one to swap with and you have looked at each others properties and agreed to the move in principle you will need to apply in writing to The Housing Needs Team.
Please remember that you will be signing to take the property as seen and no re-decoration or improvement works will be carried out by the council.
You can contact the Housing Needs Team at the Council on 01395 516551and request the forms get sent to you or you can down load the form by following this link .
Application Form (47KB - PDF Help)
What Happens Next
Once you have requested a Mutual Exchange the council will write back and acknowledge your request and let you know that we have 42 days to make a decision on the exchange. Before the exchange can go ahead the Council has various checks that it has to carry out, these are:
1). There are no rent arrears
2). The tenant isn't under notice or has issues with anti social behaviour
3) The property is suitable for need - e.g if supported housing is needed then you should swap with some-one who also lives in supported housing.
4). the property will not be over or under occupied
Once these checks have taken place then we will request that a building check on the propety be carried out by one of the Councils inspectors, along side this gas and electric checks will be carried out. If the exchange is external we will also contact the other Housing Association or council involved for a report on their tenant..
If there are building issues you may be asked to rectify these before the exchange can go ahead.
Once all the reports have come back, they have been looked at and approved we can start looking to arrange the date for the exchange to go ahead.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD AN EXCHANGE TAKE PLACE IF IT HAS NOT BEEN APPROVED IN WRITING.
Once a date has been arranged then both parties will need to attend the Knowle Sidmouth to carry out the required paperwork.
