Rental problem - wwyd

[namechange7438]

Hi,

I'm posting her for traffic as I'm not sure where else to put it and I could really do with some input - sorry if it's long, I don't want to drip feed.

We've been in our rental house for 28 months, due to landlords family fall out they've just announced they're putting our house up for sale.

In my area the housing market is currently insane - for both rental and sales. We have 6 months before we have to be out of our house but have negotiated that from now on we can leave on 30 days notice (this is due to the insane market and needing to have our child registered in a school by January) to put the state of the rental market in our area into perspective; when we were looking for this house there were around 150 available on Right Move. There are currently 40. Most of which have a tenancy agreed within a week of first being advertised.

We went to view a house - it is perfect. All of it is perfect. Because of a bizarre set of coincidences I feel we stand a high chance of being offered the tenancy.

BUT

the estate agent mentioned that they really need to find out how long term a tenancy the landlord is after as they had been trying to sell but had ver little interest sales wise so they've decided to rent it instead with an initial tenancy of 6 months.

I have dug around online and the house most recently had its sales listing updated in late July.

If you were offered the tenancy wwyd? We want as long term as possible (obviously nothing is certain in rental). The estate agent said at viewing, having been v upfront about their concerns, that they'd get a straight answer before offering a tenancy. If the answer was that the landlord wanted a longterm tenancy and you were offered it, would you take it?

YABU = No

YANBU = Yes

Thanks

@ImaginaryCat my thoughts exactly!

I put my house for sale when I moved with my OH. The sale fail through at the last minute, but part of the survey they did, which we got a copy if (when they tried to reduce the askingprice) stated rental potentual it made us think. When they asked for yet another reduction at the last minute, I pulled out and put it up for rental the following week. It's been let for 10 years now.

The problem is that you won't know unless you really speak with the LL, but the LL wont bother to do so if they gave people lined up prepared to take it who haven't done your research and know the house was previously up for sale.

I wouldn’t sign anything less than a 12 month tenancy.

We took a house in those circumstances (also in the year that our eldest was applying to start reception so really needed something medium term rather than short term. It was also in a more competitive market (there were maybe 4 rental homes listed in the area we wanted at any given point) and we had turned up to viewings of previous houses to be told that the rental had been taken by the previous viewing. The way we got the place was by calling to ask for first viewing (so whatever time someone had booked a viewing for, asking to go before them). And then we also explained our situation to the estate agents and they promised us first dibs.

However we 100% trusted the estate agents- the way they treated us was so much better and more honest than all other estate agents we had dealt with. They explained that the landlord was changing his mortgage to accommodate the rental- and that they would personally make sure we could have the house for at least a year and longer if we were good tenants. Also, although we didn’t know the landlord personally - we knew a couple of people who did and they did not have a bad word to say about him.

But even then there was still a risk we were taking that the landlord would try sell after a year. We were able to stay there for 3 years and the agents and landlord were very good to us during that time.

I would say if a year is offered its worth the chance as long as there's no 6 month break clause. Many agents are not fans of longer than 1 year contracts in case of problems with no way of getting someone out.

Your most immediate issue is being in a house within school catchment for when the form has to be completed and very likely the fist day of term in September. There can be complications with school places if you move in between acceptance and starting especially as when renting it will be down to what property is available in catchment at the time.

12 months will get you through this period and unless the school is one of the few who insist on staying in catchment while at the school you can have a bit more flexibility on where you rent in 12 months time if the LL then decides to sell.

House next to us had been rented for years. Owners decided last year to try and sell but when it didn't they remarketed for rental. Now on 2nd tenant since re renting and don't think they have any plans now to sell anytime soon.

To secure a longer tenancy agreement, you may be better off if you can find a landlord who doesn't use an agent. Often it is the agents pushing for shorter tenancies. They make more money that way, especially if there is a high turnover of tenants. They can charge for new agreements, inventories, checking references, and so on.

From the landlord's point of view, it is often less hassle and more profitable to keep tenants for longer - provided there is a mechanism to keep bumping the rent up and the LL isn't afraid to use it. Keeping tenants for longer periods saves all the agency fees, avoids empty periods between tenants, and means less frequent redecoration - they'd often need to repaint etc between tenants even if that is every year, whereas with a longterm tenant that doesn't happen.

So if you are able to approach a landlord directly and "sell yourselves" as reliable longterm tenants, you'll probably stand a better chance of getting what you want.

Even if they say long term they may be lying (unless you signed up for a long term contract, but they won't want to do that until they know you as a tenant most likely).

Our neighbour went away for 6 months, let out her flat and the tenant was told it was a long term rental. We knew that was rubbish and she was out after 8 months (delayed due to covid) as the landlord came back. I felt so sorry for her as she was an amazing tenant and had just been lied to.

I would assume there was an unspoken end of the sentence: “LL is happy to rent it out longterm unless he gets an offer to buy it, then you’ll be turfed out.

Unless you want to move again in a few months, I wouldn’t risk it.