What is the legal position?

Secure Tenants

• Secure Tenants have rights under s92 Housing Act 1985 to exchange their tenancy with another secure or assured tenant with the written consent of their landlord.

Assured Tenants

• Assured Tenants have a common law right to assign their tenancy and s15 Housing Act 1988 gives an implied term that most assured tenancies can only be assigned with the landlord’s consent. Whilst legally consent could be withheld for any reason for assured tenants, the HCA and good practice generally expects similar terms to that of Secure Tenants to be applied and this is the approach Housing 21 takes.

Fixed-Term Assured Shorthold Tenants and Local Authority Flexible Tenants

• The Localism Act 2011 introduced a new process for mutual exchanges for tenants with a 'fixed-term' assured shorthold tenancy of more than two years, or a local authority flexible tenancy. This change means that the mutual exchange is not done as a swap of tenancies (an assignment) but instead as a void and relet (surrender and re-grant)
• Housing 21 do not offer these tenancies so this rule will only apply where the incoming tenant has this type of tenancy. In these rare cases existing tenants will retain a similar type (security) of tenure to that of their original tenancy.