Nowhere to live over Christmas, advice needed

How are you getting on OP?

Join the 'Wallington Surrey' facebook group and ask there if anyone has a spare room. There are 59.5k members on that group and someone may be able to help. There are direct trains to London Bridge from Wallington and it's only a short drive or bus journey from Coulsdon. Good luck, I hope you find somewhere.

Not quite, I said it was plainly untrue that you cannot rescind your notice. You can, by mutual agreement.

LOL you can do more or less anything by mutual agreement. Not helpful here where of course the landlord isn’t going to miss out on the new tenants in order to let the OP stay three months longer until she finds another property to buy.

Not the slow clap 😂 could you be anymore arrogant? For what purpose?

Personally, I'm ensuring OP is aware that rescinding notice by mutual agreement is an option so they are aware of their options.

For what reason and to what end you are arguing so specifically on this point (sponsored by Shelter) is unknown but the facts are facts.

You have a lovely evening Emma.

You've quoted Citizens Advice Scotland and OP lives in England. <slow clap>.

Next time be more specific that it would need to be by mutual agreement when you say OP can rescind her notice.

(Again, how am I "misquoting" you? The posts are there for everyone to see.)

Not quite, I said it was plainly untrue that you cannot rescind your notice. You can, by mutual agreement.

This is an unhelpful conversation to OP and I'd suggest you look for alternative sources or practise source verification as you've already misquoted me and Shelter is sharing only very basic information.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/scotland/housing/ending-a-tenancy-s/leaving-a-tenancy/#:~:text=If%20you%20have%20a%20private%20residential%20tenancy&text=If%20you%20change%20your%20mind,permission%20by%20writing%20to%20them.

"If you change your mind, you can withdraw your notice with the landlord's permission by writing to them. You should do this as soon as possible in the same way as you sent the notice. Keep a copy for your records."

I won't be engaging in your point scoring anymore, fact is you can, by mutual agreement, rescind your notice. So suggesting OP ignore those that say it is an option is bad advice.

"You cannot withdraw a valid notice if you change your mind.
Your landlord may agree to let you or other joint tenants stay on after a notice ends."
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/ending_a_periodic_tenancy/how_much_notice

If you want to argue that I am "misquoting" Shelter (how is it misquoting if I'm using C&P?!) please do enlighten us as to the correct reading of those very clear words.

Ah but at no point did you specify that it has to be by mutual agreement. You implied that the tenant can just rescind their notice. Actually the landlord has to agree to let them stay beyond their notice ending.

It's well known that notice can be rescinded by mutual agreement, and you're giving bad advice by misquoting Shelter which could leave vulnerable people scared and afraid. Do better.

@Lollypop25
How do you explain this, then?
Can you share a reference confirming that you are right and Shelter Legal is wrong?

What's with the flowers?!

Yes actually, I have a law degree and have worked in the industry for over a decade. That's how I know you're talking rubbish 💐

Here’s my deaf, partially blind, prone to slam hurling the cat, floofy rescue girl bun bun

One of my airbnb guests from overseas was due to move into a rental property. She stayed with me on a temp basis while waiting for the previous tenant to move out. The previous tenant got let down on her property purchase and asked to stay, or be given some extra time until she found somewhere else.

My guest insisted on moving in on the agreed date, so she had to leave.

On moving out day, the landlord went round to find the previous tenant still there. He gave her until 6pm, then called the police when she wouldn’t move. They must have having a quiet night because they did go round after a few hours, and she was made to leave at 11pm with nowhere to go.

The next day the landlord changed the locks and got the property deep cleaned. My guest moved in as planned, while the previous tenant was left homeless.

Do you have a staff noticeboard at work?

We have one on our intranet, and there are often people looking for or offering rooms to rent short term.

You don't have to tell you GP if you've moved, just forward your post.
Definitely look at housesitting, loads of people will need care for pets over Xmas. My DM is off on a long holiday in Jan looking for 3 weeks pet sitter as an example.
Put your stuff in storage and then just cope with a bit of uncertainty over the next month or two and either get back into a rental or find somewhere else to buy

@StormingNorman it's like shouting "🐂💩" on someone's thread but with added mumsnet "wit" it's basically troll hunting and twatty . The comment was removed .

I'm not sure housesitting is an option as it would require a DBS check which could take weeks.

Just a thought. Are there any caravan parks nearby that may rent to you for a few weeks? If you are looking at longer term, could you buy a second hand caravan, park it on a site, one at Abbey Wood charges £23 per night, then, when you find a house sell the caravan? I don't know if this would be feasible but might be worth looking at.

Expert on housing law, are you?
It does annoy me when people make shit up on mumsnet.

Is it, but if the OP ever wants to rent again, she will need a reference.

How about something like this until you find a new house to buy

https://www.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/flatshare_detail.pl?featured=1&flatshare_id=17560712&search_id=&search_results=%2Fflatshare%2Fcroydon%2Fpage4

That's plainly untrue. You can rescind your notice whenever you want.

I am so sorry that you are in this situation, OP. Frankly, the system in the UK for buying and selling property is appalling, and the scenario of vendors pulling out because they've changed their mind happens very often, and should not be possible. Please have a hug from me. There are good suggestions on this strand, so not much to add, but to recap:

i) housesitting: TrustedHousesitters seems to be more a pet-sitting agency than homesitting one per se, and I think that they stipulate that you can't leave a pet for more than three hours, but worth looking into. For Christmas holidays, if you get that time off, and like animals, there is a nice cat-sitting gig in Croydon: https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/house-and-pet-sitting-assignments/united-kingdom/england/croydon/l/1814481
You pay an annual fee (I think £200) and no money exchanges hands for rent.

ii) University Rooms: you can rent a room during the university holidays. I've stayed in central London, and it was fine; en suite room and shared kitchen, so not fancy, but nicer than a cheap hotel;
ii) as others have said, best thing to do is to put your possessions into self-storage, which gives you a lot of flexibility. Worth getting started asap with the packing, and everything will be sitting safely in store for when you buy :-)
iii) look on Sparerooms for a house share. This is, of course, not ideal, but will be cheaper than your flat's rent was, and hopefully you can actually save money to finance your future purchase. When I bought my first flat I was living in a shared house with minimal possessions, and only had to give a month's notice, and that made it very easy to move.

Don't despair! It will take some time before you're in a place of your own, and may mean living in less than ideal circumstances, but you'll get there. Another hug!

@Bakewellbits trying to think practically how much are you used to spending on rent and bills per month? The actual Christmas/NY period is going to be massively inflated in terms of costs for the likes of an Airbnb but outside of that period it might be possible to negotiate a much more realistic rate. How much stuff do you have which would need storing?

Presumably ideally you want to look for somewhere else to buy so it could be some months before you get through the process so need to plan for at least 3 months but not a rental with a 6 or 12 months minimum term as it puts you back in the same position.

Start looking at storage options now - prices vary by location so it's worth phoning several and also the unit size they have available will vary and you don't want to pay for a size you don't need just because it's the only thing available.

Caravan or mobile home out of season could be an option or finding someone looking for a lodger. Post on some local Facebook groups to see if anyone is looking. Mention that income from renting a room is tax free up to something like £7k a year.

What a stressful thing to happen, I’m so sorry! Sorry if it’s been suggested already but you could look on spareroom for a short term room in a house share maybe? Your stuff could go into storage until you’ve managed to buy?