Welcome to South Oxfordshire Choice Based Lettings

Mutual Exchanges

Exchanges help two or more COUNCIL or HOUSING ASSOCIATION tenants to swap their tenancies. To do this you must be a secure council tenant or an assured housing association tenant. You will not be able to do an exchange if you are still an introductory tenant. If you are interested in doing an exchange but are not sure if you are able to, ask your housing association or council for more details.

The service is not available to tenants of Private Landlords.

If you are in Band C or D an exchange could be a quicker and easier way to find a new home than waiting for a transfer. However, it relies on you doing the work to find another tenant who is willing to swap homes with you and then applying to your landlord for permission.

If you wish to exchange your home you can complete an offer form with details of your current property and what you are looking for. Your offer will first have to be approved by your landlord and then it will be published in the property newsletter and on the this website.

Paper forms are also available from Soha Housing in Didcot. Your advert will be displayed in the mutual exchange folder in their offices. These folders are available to view during office opening hours. Click How to Contact Us  for details. You may also wish to place an advert elsewhere, for example in local newsagents’ windows or the local paper.

If you are a COUNCIL or HOUSING ASSOCIATION TENANT and want to place an exchange offer Click here.

If you find a suitable property that you are interested in it is up to you to contact the other tenant(s) and make the necessary arrangements to look at each other’s properties. If you decide that you want to go ahead with a swap, you must get the agreement of both the housing association or council landlords. You must not arrange to move until your landlord tells you that you can. The proposed properties must be suitable for each household’s needs and the rent accounts of all the parties concerned must be up to date. You must also agree to accept the property in the condition that you see it.

You can see exchange offers in other parts of Oxfordshire by looking on the Oxford, Cherwell and Vale of White Horse pages on the www.oxfordshirehomechoice.co.uk website.

If you wish to move outside of Oxfordshire area, you may be interested in the Homeswappers scheme. Homeswappers is a UK-wide register of tenants seeking home swaps. To register on Homeswapper you can register online at www.homeswappers.co.uk.