Free access for CVCH residents to house swap mutual exchange service

For tenants wishing to move, the Castle Vale Community Housing (CVCH) is pleased to announce that it has just extended its subscription to the House Exchange mutual exchange service for another three years.

This allows our CVCH’s residents FREE access to House Exchange’s mutual exchange online database.

About the House Exchange mutual exchange service

The service allows those CVCH residents who have an assured tenancy, to register their own property on the House Exchange website and find a mutual exchange partner to swap homes with.

Through the free website, our tenants can search, find matches and contact other housing association or council tenants who also wish to swap their home.

Eligibility for mutual exchange

To be eligible for a mutual exchange, you must meet the below requirements:

• a tenant cannot move to a property where they will be overcrowded or have more space than needed;
• neither parties are in arrears with rent;
• the other tenants landlord is happy for the exchange to happen;
• the swap does not breach any planning regulations;
• CVCH’s permission is obtained in writing; and
• there is no ongoing legal action relating to either tenancy.

There may be other conditions, depending on your type of tenancy. Please contact us to see if you are able to exchange.

Properties across the UK

Currently, 2,100 new properties for exchange have been added across the UK, meaning you can find a house swap near you or even in another town/city.

The home swap process

Through the website, you can choose which area you’d like to move to and which home you would like to live in before agreeing to swap your home.

Once you have registered, the website will automatically match you up with other council or housing association residents who also want to swap their homes.

The Homes Direct website

Tenants may have used the Homes Direct website when searching for available homes to rent. This will permanently close on 30 June, 2021 but can still be used to manage mutual exchanges until then. Any house exchanges that are in process won’t be affected.

Further information

If you are interested in the free house exchange service, please go to  https://www.houseexchange.org.uk/ where you can find out more and register.

Here you can also find a link to download the free app which is available on the Apple and Google Play stores.

There are other mutual exchange service providers, but you may have to pay to access their services, while House Exchange is free.