Short Term Flats

if you can afford to rent you should be renting.
Morals

The key word here is ’secure’. Yes, if you are getting tired of waiting, maybe you would be better to find a private rental, BUT be warned, nothing in renting privately is ’secure’. Ever. And if you find a property, do check it’s not on the market for sale as well! This, I’ve found, is happening a lot in the UK just now – and you may well find yourself out in the cold (literally!) if you jump. You might luck into a long-term rental privately, one that is long term, but do ask the question and make sure what you are moving into is a true rental property.

I don’t think you will have any luck trying to push the situation. The bottom line is there just isn’t enough rental housing available, in all sectors, at the moment.

Personally I’d not chuck up ’security’, even if the property isn’t exactly what you want.

Stick with the housing assoc. I’ve rented with both, private landlords can disappear for a while especially when there’s a problem, but cause havoc when the rent is not there on time. With the HA we always had problems, leaks, faults etc sorted in a matter of hours or days and the rent was far cheaper, also I dont think I had to pay a month deposit and a month bond.In a private renting, after losing my keys one day I had to break into the flat, the land lady was on holiday, at the time I said I would get it fixed but she said ‘not a problem’ and would not charge me as I’d been there so long with no problems. On trying to get a months deposit back I ended up with nothing. The quote I got for the door was about 40 quid!

Good Luck Happy Christmas x

It depends which you value more – living in the area you want to live in, or having a secure affordable tenancy. If it’s vital for you to live in a particular area because of your work, your children’s schools, family ties etc, then I’d agree that private renting in order to have this advantage may be a good idea. But you certainly won’t have the same security of tenure, or a below-market rent, if you choose to rent privately. Do you want to give that up?

You can only ‘push’ to be allocated into another housing associations accomodation if your housing association currently uses this measure. Some do, some don’t, and those that do typically only do so in particular circumstances or for tenants in great need. You can put in an appeal, but there’s no guarantee of success. Things may have changed since the ex-housing officer you spoke to was involved in such procedures, so they may be giving you outdated advice.

I assume that you have advertised your property with Homeswapper and other web sites that list mutual exchanges between social tenants. If not, follow the link at the bottom. There are plenty of others worth looking at as well.

Try advertising your home in various newsagents windows in the area you want to move to. It can be cheap and a photo showing how nice it is along with details of shops, schools, transport etc can prove very successful. Say why you want to move, like new job, nearer family etc. Don’t ever say it is because it is noisy, rough, you feel frightened after dark. That will not get you moved.

Place an advert in Loot. It is free. Look into putting an advert in the local area paper. There is so much you can do. But always hang onto that tenancy with the housing association.

Your best bet is an mutual exchange. I would wait until after Christmas to advertise. You have to pay £7 odd to advertise on Homeswapper for three months and this is not a busy time of year for moving. You can browse what properties there are available for free, you just won’t be able to contact the swapper.

Good Luck