tenant transfers

Occasionally existing tenants wish to transfer to another property. Perhaps they want to move into a larger house or flat (or a smaller) or to a different area. There are several ways of achieving this but it is necessary to sound a note of caution; the high demand for property in London means that in practice it can be very hard to move between landlords, boroughs or even within your own landlord's stock.

Firstly there Housing for Women's own transfer procedures. The waiting time for a move to a particular borough depends on the quantity of stock we have in that borough and the demand within the borough for the type of property requested. Check out the analysis of housing stock managed by Housing for Women. (If we have very little stock in a borough then very occasionally we may be able to arrange a mutual swap transfer with one of our partner associations.)

Homes is the nationwide system whereby tenants may move between housing association landlords and offers another option to tenants seeking a move. This system is under great pressure within London especially if you are looking for 2 bedroom flats or larger. Moves out of London may be easier to achieve.

Many of the local authorities are now starting what are known as choice based letting systems. Using these new systems, tenants who are on a local authority housing list receives a regular newsletter or can log onto a website which shows all of the housing association and council property available in that borough. The potential tenant can then apply for the properties that they like the look of. The applicants who meet the borough's criteria for the property are then offered it on a first come first served basis.

LB Lewisham calls their choice based lettings system Homesearch and it is already operational. Camden, Ealing and Hounslow are also launching choice based letting systems soon. If you would like more information about this then either contact your housing officer or have at look at the Local Authority web sites listed on our Choice Based Lettings page.