Beccarose

I'm beginning to think maybe some type of home swap would be perfect for us and am wondering if anyone has done it and/or if anyone has any ideas on how to get started. I've done some searches and so far I only come across sites that cost to be a part of, which I understand, they need to weed out the riff raff but I don't even know which sites are more reputable than others or which I should try before others.

We have a house we want to rent out, and would need to rent where we end up, and we have lots of stuff in our house, so instead of doing the conventional renting which would mean we would need to pack up everything why not just look into some sort of house swap if possible. We don't plan on taking everything with us initially until we figure out where we will end up, so I would rather not have to deal with storage when we have a perfectly good house we could keep our stuff in in the meantime. Does this sound logical or make sense or are we overlooking something?

Panhandle

Thats a good Idea, it does make sense to swap, instead of burning your bridges.
So where is your house, somewhere exotic

Pistolpete2

You are overlooking the fact that if you are simply doing a house-swap you are not establishing proper residency in the UK and that this could have ramifications for access to state schooling and even the National Health Service (NHS). I think that you would need to obtain proper advice regarding this route unless the swap and the wording of any agreement that you have regarding the swap suggests a degree of permanency in the move to the UK.

In order to gain access to the NHS you need to be ordinarily resident in the Uk and this requires that you are properly settled in the UK. In order to gain access to state schools you usually need to show proof that you are resident in the county council or local authority that supports the local schools you wish to gain access to and this means your name on utility bills, council tax bills and the like.

The fact that you enter the UK's borders in itself raises the issue of income tax if you are in the UK for a sufficient time to be deemed resident, wherever you may actually live, but this does not necessarily mean that you get the "perks" of being tax resident just because you have the jeopardy of being taxable on income arising in the UK or anywhere else in the world for that matter if deemed ordinarily resident in the UK for tax purposes.

FYI, you can be taxed on your world income by the UK tax authorities simply by spending 92 days per annum in the UK on a routine/permanent basis, which results in your being deemed resident and ordinarily resident there. This unless you elect to be taxed only upon funds actually remitted to the UK to support your cost of living and this (remittance basis route) can only be used for seven years before you have to pay a substantial fee for the privilege. Being in the Uk for these 92 days doesn't entitle you to any perks of residency.

christmasoompa

Try www.homeforexchange.com, it's worked for us in the past.

HTH.

Beccarose

Hmm, while I was pretty confused by your post especially the tax bits- I really need things laid out strictly in layman's terms- I do see your points about having our residency there be legit. I wonder if there is a contract would that make a difference?

Not really, we are on Whidbey Island http://www.clintonchamberofcommerce.org/, US Pacific Northwest. It's pretty, that's for sure but just not for us.

Thanks christmasoompa, will look into that further. Is that what you did when you moved? House swap?