If your home situation has changed and you need to move to a bigger or smaller home, or you want to be closer to friends and family or your place of work; you might be able to swap homes with another housing association or local authority tenant.
This is known as a Mutual Exchange, which is where two or more social housing customers exchange and move permanently into each other’s homes. It’s an option you might want to consider if you don’t qualify for a direct offer through our rehousing service.
You must meet a certain criteria to be eligible for a Mutual Exchange:
The person you swap with must meet one of the following requirements.
There may be other conditions, depending on your type of tenancy. Please get in touch with us on 0800 678 1221 if you would like more information about mutual exchanges. Further information and advice is available on the Shelter website.
Your Mutual Exchange can’t go ahead without our approval. It’s important that you don’t make any arrangements in relation to the swap until you’ve received our agreement in writing and all parties have agreed a move or exchange date.
If you do so, it might be considered as a breach of your tenancy agreement and action could be taken. It could lead to you being at risk of losing your home.
As soon as we’ve received all the applications, we’ll send you written confirmation.
We’ll make every effort to provide all parties with a decision as soon as we can, but please be aware, this could take up to 42 days from the time we receive your application.
We'll arrange to carry out a property inspection of your home. Once we have all information we need, we'll be able to assess and approve the exchange.
We’ll let you know if there are any issues identified during the inspection, such as repairs you might be responsible for, or repairs that we need to complete before the exchange can go ahead.
We may also need to arrange an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) inspection and an Asbestos Survey. We’ll let you know in writing if we need to arrange these appointments.
If your exchange partner/s aren’t one of our customers, we’ll need to contact their housing provider for a reference. We’ll send them a reference about how you’ve managed your tenancy and about the condition of your current home.
You'll be asked to sign a consent form, confirming you wish to proceed with the swap.
We'll then need to arrange to get an electrical safety certificate for your home. In some cases, we may need to have an isolator switch fitted in your current home, which could lead to a delay in the sign-up process. You may need you to speak to your utility providers about this, but if so, we’ll support you to do so. There may some additional costs associated with having an isolator switch installed, but we’ll support you with this if that’s the case.
When the above tasks have been completed, we’ll then contact all parties to arrange an appointment for everyone to sign the Mutual Exchange paperwork.
We might also need to arrange a gas safety check for the day the new residents move into your current home. If there’s no gas at the property a further appointment will be made for the day you become responsible for your new homes to test your smoke alarms.
You’ll need to pay a minimum of one week’s rent up front when you sign up for one of our homes, even if you receive full housing benefit payments. Please be aware that you’ll only be able to make this payment by debit or credit card and have access to a smart phone or device where you can make online payments.
Please let us know as soon as possible if this is going to cause you any issues and we’ll do what we can to help you. If you’re moving to a home with a new housing provider, you’ll need to contact them to find out if you need to make a rent payment at your sign-up appointment.
HomeSwapper is the UK’s biggest and most popular Mutual Exchange service for social housing customers, with over 200,000 homes listed and 1000s more added every week. It’s a useful and easy to use online tool, with a free to download app and lots of help and support. Homeswapper can help you search for swaps, get in touch with other social housing customers and arrange viewings; until you find the perfect new home. Its free to use if you’re an Orbit customer. If you have any issues with getting free access, let us know and we’ll make sure your account is approved.
When you register for an account with Homeswapper you’ll be asked for lots of information about your home. This will be used to populate your advert, so make sure all the details are right, especially the amount you pay for your rent and any service charges.
You’ll need to add some details about extra features in your home, such as whether you have double glazing, whether you have a garden and if there is parking. There’s also a section for local area information, such as schools and local health services. The more detail you add the better your advert will be.
Take lots of good photos of the inside and outside of your home, the more the better. Try to present your home in the best way possible, with tidy rooms and garden free from clutter.
Homeswapper has a useful document with all the information you will need to make sure that you make the most of their website.
To apply for a Mutual Exchange, please create a Homeswapper account. Once you have an account you will find the apply button on your dashboard. This will take to through the application form which is sent to the Mutual Exchange team directly.
In this instance please contact our Customer Service team on 0800 678 1221. We will be able to send you a link to the application for to apply for the Mutual Exchange.
You are making a big commitment to swap homes, so before confirming that you’ll go ahead with swapping homes with another customer, make sure you can answer Yes to all the following questions:
As we offer various housing options, our tenancy agreements vary from customer to customer, which means charges can differ, even between customers living on the same street. Not all types of tenancy agreements are eligible for a Mutual Exchange.
You can check on our My Rent Charges page to find out exactly which type of rent you pay, according to the type of tenancy you hold. If you’re unsure of the type of tenancy, just check your tenancy agreement.
You’ll need to complete an application form with our Tenancy Services team to apply for your tenancy to be changed. This is known as a joint to sole application. Once the tenancy has been signed over into a sole name agreement, you’ll then be able to apply for a Mutual Exchange.
There’s usually a rise in applications around the school holidays and the Christmas period. This means that there’ll be more properties available but also that the timescales may be a little longer than usual for assessing your application.
We must give you a decision as to whether the exchange has been approved or declined within 42 days of receiving the completed application form.
The 42-day response service standard only applies to the decision being finalised. This is not your moving date. All parties involved including the housing providers must be able to carry out the signing of new tenancies and make sure that all relevant safety checks are carried out. It’s only once this process has been completed that a moving date will be confirmed.
You will be required to pay a minimum of one week of rent when you sign up for an Orbit home, even if you are in receipt of full housing benefit. You’ll need to make this payment by credit or debit card and have access to a personal smart phone or device where you can make payment online. If this is going to cause you difficulty, please contact us straight away. We do NOT accept any cash payments.
The property is inspected to make sure that you’ve maintained during your tenancy and to find out if there are any items, fixtures or fittings that will need to be repair by you or us before the exchange can be approved. An inspection report will be completed during the inspection, and you’ll be expected to sign it to confirm that you agree with what’s been recorded and to complete the repairs that have been found. This report will be shared with your exchanging partner.
Once the Mutual Exchange has been completed and you have moved into your new home, you can get in touch with our Income and Recoveries team on 0800 678 1221 to arrange for the refund. Please note, if the credit is due to a housing benefit overpayment, you will not be entitled to the refund.
Arrangements for gifting items are made between you and your exchanging partner. We do not hold any responsibility, nor will we become involved in any gifted item arrangements, nor will we carry out any repairs to gifted items. Please make sure arrangements are discussed, and ideally confirmed and signed by both parties, in writing, before the exchange takes place.
If you are leaving Orbit, we ask that:
A Mutual Exchange electrical test must be completed to make sure the property is safe for the new customer and that no unsafe alterations have been made during the time you’ve lived there.
A Mutual Exchange electrical test is a different test and needs to be carried out as part of our compliance policy.
The gas safety check is arranged with the new customer once they’ve moved in. You should also have a gas safety check arranged by your new housing provider when you move into your new home.
A Mutual Exchange gas safety test is a different test and needs to be carried out as part of our compliance policy. There’s a current gas safety certificate in place for your home; however, due to the removal and installation of appliances during your move, we must carry out an added safety check on moving day, for health and safety reasons. You’ll be contacted in due course about arrangements for this essential safety check.
An isolator switch is a switch used to isolate an electrical circuit in your home. It’s usually used to disconnect a circuit from a power supply so that the circuit can be maintained without interrupting power to the rest of the system. The isolator switch is usually located at the service entrance to the building or the main switchboard.