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Can you swap council houses across counties?

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  • 10-04-2024 8:38am
    #1
    SupaCat95
    Registered Users Posts: 560 ✭✭✭


    Not sure if this is the right forum but advice requested.

    Brother in law many years ago put himself wife and child in mountainy village down the country where he was out of the reaches of Dept of Social Welfare. Got a three bedroom council house.

    Fast forward to present day. Wife split. Daughter is 17 and wants to leave to go to college next year. He is going to be on his own far from family in a remote place. He has suggested that he move in with myself and wife. I do like the guy and he is clean but no ambition, work and he doesnt fit in our greater family plan (wish to move abroad in future and he is homeless).

    The daughter has asked me to move in as a medium term measure, I naturally agreed if she gets a place first in either local third level institutions.

    Can he swap houses across County Councils? Council are going to want the house back if there is a three bedroom house with a single man only in it. Would he be better putting the application sooner than later while he is still a parent to a child?

    Thought please. Breaks my heart that he is away from his family but he engineered that and I really dont want him in my space.



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    #2
    Vizzy
    Registered Users Posts: 2,527 ✭✭✭Vizzy


    The only way that this will happen is if he can find another tenant in the other County that is willing to swap with him. Then both of them can approach their respective County Councils to ask for permission to swap.

    Other than that he can notify his County Council that he is now seeking to downsize ( I would suggest he tells the Council that his daughter is going to college but will be returning at weekends and will need somewhere to stay). The Council might be delighted to get a 3 bed house back, provided that it is in very good position.

    He is not homeless though, he is a tenant of a 3 bed house.



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    #3
    sydthebeat
    Subscribers Posts: 41,021 ✭✭✭✭sydthebeat


    There's a very active "swapping" page on Facebook for local authority housing. People put up where they are living and where they would like to move to



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    #4
    SupaCat95
    Registered Users Posts: 560 ✭✭✭SupaCat95


    The County we are in allows internal swaps but not inter county swaps. Just found that out a few hours ago. The house is not in a great position, there is no regular transport system they dont have a car and the area does not have a local regular employer.

    Honest guys? I do feel sorry for him being in the back end of nowhere but he engineered that so Social Welfare would leave him alone. But you cannot get a council house for free and then decide you dont like it when a cold wind blows from the ease and want to swap locations for a more affluent part of the country.

    I am going to have to find finance on day 1 for 20-80k for a granny flat or Timber Log cabin. For someone bringing nothing to the table. I was sort of hoping he would get a swap in the next county with his sisters and Father (ie not my problem).

    Obviously There is another story I am not telling here. I am hoping for a way for this not to pan out without looking like a callous individual. The daughter has a reason to want to go aparts from Isolation. By the time she is finished college I would be betting she would be in Belfast or international starting her first job.



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