To not move out of rented house until I'm ready?

[longtermsinglemummy]

I have rented my current home for 5 years. I've looked after it as if it were my own and we've been really happy here. The landlord lives abroad.

In April I had a phone call from the letting agents asking for the property to be valued as the landlord was looking into selling it (huge shock as you can imagine). To cut a long story short he did decide to sell the property and we were given 2 months notice on 21st May, which was then extended by another 2 months expiring on September 22nd as it was still unsold.

In this period I have complied with their wishes. I have had people view the property (which was galling as it feels like our home), and then a mortgage valuation and survey once the house was sold (they only told us it was sold at the end of July). Since then we have looked at so many houses both online and in person but there were none that we really liked or that were suitable for us. I also have legacy credit issues which have stood in our way.

I have finally found a house that we like, and they will have us

But am I being unreasonable in saying we are not able to move out by the 22nd? This date would put so much pressure on me as I couldn't get my head around moving until we had somewhere to move to, so still have loads to do. There is no chain, the buyers aren't selling their house and my landlord is abroad and has a home there. I also have to get my daughter back to university which wipes out one weekend. My ideal scenario would be to vacate the house on Monday October 10th, 2.5 weeks after my notice runs out.

I just feel that I have been a really good tenant over the years, I have been compliant during this horrible shitty period when I could have been obstructive had I chosen to be. The letting agents are saying it has to be Sept 22nd and it's not possible to go past this date, contracts have been drawn up etc.

Surely another 2.5 weeks couldn't be that much of an issue?

welshgirlwannabe

"The problem with renting in this country is that there are too many small scale landlords who cannot afford the risk, such as allowing a period of vacancy when selling".

Yes they normally have a mortgage to pay and they as a rule , mortgage lenders, aren't all that accommodating when they don't get paid.

OP, I wouldn't advise you to stay on, as you have found somewhere else and have plenty of time to pack up, but I am at the aggression and vitriol shown to you and the attitudes to all private renters on this thread. I am SO glad I am in social housing now. I rented privately for 18 years and I was always the one to give notice, so I guess I was lucky there. In my last private rental, the house was actually in receivership, but I think they were thinking of selling, as they sent 2 different agents around to "appraise the property". That was the push for me to start bidding on social housing, and I was allocated one in days.

Ebay do different sized packing boxes (I got 30 for about £15) and if you do a room at a time of all non-essentials first before essentials, carefully labelling all boxes, you should be fine for time. Good luck with your move and happy new home.

Yes. Renters would be better served if more housing was owned by corporate entities that could afford to manage the, not outlandish, possibility of a few months void period.

tbh, it sounds like a situation on Can't Pay? We'll Take it Away!. And we all know how well those usually end up for the tenants.

OP, for the sake of an easy life you know what to do but the ll is lucky. He or she should have taken steps to ensure the house sale went through smoothly and not taken such a silly risk.

I have no words. People are not really this stupid and unreasonable surely.

Refusing to leave the house on the date given, when you have had plenty of notice potentially costing both the buyers and the sellers thousands of pounds and risking the sale for no other reason than you didn't get yourself properly organised is deeply, deeply selfish OP.

Assuming that the buyers have given notice on their old place you could leave them homeless and cost them thousands of pounds in accomodation/storage. If the sale falls through it could be far more than that.

The stress you are causing the buyer and the landlord is massive. And totally unnecessary.

The landlord may need the money for something (for example his own house purchase) in his home country. If that falls through as a result of your behaviour you could be unknowingly impacting a whole chain of people in another country.

You have enough time to pack the house and move out. Get to it.

welshgirlwannabe yes corporate entities then why doesn't that happen then?.

YABU Of course you will need to be out before the contracts are exchanged. The new person will want to move in and it'll be theirs. Annoying but that's the downside of renting and you did get 4 months notice - more than is usual

OP - you haven't said when you can get your new property - when does your new tenancy start, is it this weekend? If so, as hard as it is, you need to move - get the bulk packed the next 2/3 days then shift furniture/boxes this weekend.

If you can't get your new tenancy to start until start of October, then you have a problem and your LL might be more understanding, but in their situation, I would be understanding of "my tenancy doesn't start until 1st october, I can't move before then" and "I am paying rent on both places, but would like to spend 3 weeks slowly moving bit by bit."

Come on, get on with packing, you're moving house this week.

If I had someone paying my mortgage for 5 years I'd try and help them out when the time came. It's 2 weeks not two years

The reason I'd never own a buy to let property is demonstrated by some cunts on this thread quite aptly. Quite glad the majority of the people posting aren't as selfish though.

I could understand some of these posts IF the OP hadn't been given plenty of notice, she has. She has known since April that the house was going to be put up for sale, she shouldn't have waited until last minute to at least try and find somewhere else. We were given notice on our rental due to house sale, we were told in the February that it would be happening but didn't get official 2 months notice until March. Unfortunately we didn't find anything suitable, still haven't but that wasn't our landlord's problem, we moved into mums and put all our stuff into storage. As we have pets it makes it all the more difficult to find a rental. We had also been there for many years but we managed to pack up and get out by the agreed date. As it happens, the house didn't sell until this month but they wanted us out so we left and that is exactly what you should do

JUSTABOY (not shouting, can't bold!!)

I don't know why that doesn't happen here, it does in other countries. I'm not from this country although I have lived here long enough to see how awful the housing situation is. I won't generalise as to why that is.

I'm a renter and have been in the situation of having my home put up for sale by the LL, and it's a pain and it's unsettling and inconvenient, but YABVU.

It doesn't sound like you have any real reason for wanting to delay other than having been in denial and wanting to take your own sweet time. If you'd started packing away bit by bit in MAY when you first received your notice, it wouldn't be nearly so daunting a prospect now.

Presumably you have a date fixed from when your tenancy starts at the new place? And I imagine it would be a bit of a pain for you if they arbitrarily pushed that back by 2.5 weeks because the current tenant 'couldn't get their head around' moving?

You've had absolutely ages to come to terms with moving and start packing up. The fact that you've funded repairs is neither here nor there - this is the landlord's responsibility, so if you've voluntarily subsidised him, that's your own problem really.

I've never bought a property but I understand the legal process to be expensive, slow and frustrating. It's not really a scenario where the whimsical fancies of a tenant are really going to generate much sympathy.

I think this is unreasonable. It feels like your home but legally it's not. This is between the landlord (the vendor) and the buyer (purchaser). You have been given notice and I think it's unfair if you to try and stay. Yes I t feels like your home, but it's rented by you from the landlord. Your contact is with him. He gave you adequate notice to leave.
Your letting people look through the house to sell it, is legally what you are required to do. You don't do the landlord favours by letting people have a look through the house you are required to.
It's not your house.
I think you need to accept that although you may love the home, you have been renting it, and it's time to go. It's not yours, you don't hold the leasehold or freehold to the title.
It's time to finish up and move on to better things.
All the best.

It feels like your home but legally it's not

Legally it is exactly that, when you pay rent for a property it is your home until the lease expires. It may not be your house, but it is your home.

Oh and just so you know I have owned a house and rented from others for many years myself (so understand the scenarios). I don't think there is an issue of what's fair or kind here.
The landlord gave you plenty of time and notice. How the sale of the house went has nothing to do with you (you're not the legal owner).
Leaving a home, and packing and organizing to leave, is never easy. But it needs to be done.
It's not the landlords problem. It's yours. Just accept it and get packing.

DivorceBadger erm, the OP hasn't "paid their mortgage" for 5 years as a favour! She did it in exchange for living in their house.

Apart from anything else, another two weeks might not be in the landlords gift if a sale is arranged.

You have no knowledge of the landlord's position. I'm a landlord in the UK while living in another country. I make no profit on my UK property. It's not an investment property either.

The OP has credit issues so she can't buy a house. In which case she has to rent and should make sure she maintains her history as a good tenant.

I think some of you on here could cut the OP a bit of slack. It is shit being a tenant of a private landlord - you can't really call anywhere home no matter how long you've lived there, how nice you've made it, how much rent you've paid over years and years without the LL having to stump up for a void. Imagine living somewhere with your family for five years and suddenly being told you have to get out? Of course the LL is perfectly within his legal rights, but a bit of sympathy for the OP wouldn't go amiss. I've been a tenant and a landlord and now thank goodness I live in my own place. I'm sure the OP would love that luxury - I'm guessing she can't afford it. Unfortunately most of the social housing in in the UK has been flogged off so the chances of her finding a nice secure tenancy somewhere diminishes as the years go by. I second the advice of a pp who advised you to bite the bullet and get on with it - get some boxes, chuck some stuff out, work to your deadline and ship out. The sooner you get on with it the sooner it's done and I hope your next place is lovely - there may be a silver lining, you may like it more than this one and be glad you moved. I really hope so.

MizzEmma said what I was thinking! OP has been paying for a place to live. Whether that goes to pay LL's mortgage or school fees or gambling debt doesn't matter.

I have been renting privately for 10 years. As a long term renter it matters what references you get! And don't think your LL wouldn't ring your new LL to withdraw their good reference. You're already at a disadvantage with poor credit, why would you add a bad reference to that???

They won't want to exchange contracts until you are out. They won't be able to get you out before your preferred date either. But it could affect your tenant ratings, as other posters have said.
It might he worth checking whether the notice to quit is valid, just so you know where you stand.
And then if you really can't be out by 22 September, best to tell the landlord and give them a date by which you will have vacated.

If landlords had to have an empty property before even marketing it, don't you think rents would be increased significantly to cover this risk? Even corporate landlords can't just absorb this potentially huge cost'

It's not quite clear whether you're wanting to stay an extra two weeks for free or whether you are expecting to pay an extra half months rent.

If it's the latter, you could propose that to your LL.

Though I'm not sure why you would want to pay an extra half month's rent when you have a place to go to.

Posted too soon.

As presumably you would then be paying double rent for 2 weeks.

I am very surprised that people think it's okay to stay put until a court order tells you to leave.
I don't think that was on my rental agreement ("I'll rent your house long term but I'll only leave when they come around and bang on my door and tell me to leave". nope).
I also don't recall thinking that because it would disrupt my peace to let prospective buyers look through, then I wouldn't allow it and just say no not in my home. Yes, it is disruptive and uncomfortable to let people look through but it's not my right to say these people can't have a look through someone else's home that they are trying to sell. It's a given. The house was determined by the LL to be sold and you actually need people to look through a house before they choose to put their money down to pay for such a large purchase. (As I said it's not your issue whether it sold or not. That's nothing to do with a renter).
It's very silly to demand anything else.
Seriously would you buy a car and not test drive it or look through it and check out the interior or look under the bonnet: "Oh I'll pay £5k for your car thanks, but I won't look at it as it will be too disruptive for you (hands over money and goes to drive off but car has no engine so doesn't start)." Really? You hand over your money for nothing? Didn't think so.

Oh I want to go to a shop in town and have a look around because I feel like it. "What it's closing time? How rude of you to ask me to leave? Send in the police I'll leave when they come and get me".
Yes you have paid to rent a house but it's a contract to rent someone else's house. So you have to leave when the landlord gives you notice.
Same thing if you own the house and you can't pay the bank. The bank can come and take the home off you. It works that way for them too.
And it's not a favour to rent someone's home. It's a contract: I need to live somewhere so I agree to pay to live in someone else's home and to look after it. That's part of the contract. We cannot walk into a shop and do someone a favour and buy their goods. We buy a bed because we need a bed. It's not a favour to the shop owner to buy a bed.
Honestly people need to think about it a little. Yes it's hard to move out of a place but it's life.