To ask the new LL for more time?

[Lovequinngoldberg]

I posted this in Property but no replies so thought I'd try here for more traffic...

We've been accepted to rent a new place (great!) however the downside is the LL wants to start the new tenancy within 14 days.

We need to give 7 weeks notice on current place (ie 1 full month from the day of our tenancy which is the 8th of the month).

DP offered a week's crossover (ie new tenancy to start in 6 weeks) but no more because, as he rightly says it would cost us ££££s to run 2 houses for a month. He thinks the LL will just agree and asking for lease to start in 2 weeks is just a try on.

We've asked the current LL if they will release us early so we can start the new lease sooner (probably not) - nothing back from the LL of new property and the agents are quite negative about our chances.

Are we BU to ask to delay start of the lease? Is it likely to be agreed or are we going to lose out? Might they come back with a counter proposal or something?

I really love the house and it's the first thing suitable in months so will be sad if we miss out.

If I was you I’d get some proper advice on how much notice you are legally obligated to give your current landlord. In my experience some LL’s like to insert clauses in the contract to their benefit that are not legally enforceable.

AFAIK the clause is enforceable, it's in the contract - and the letting agents are same for both properties, when we spoke to them and they said we were being offered the new tenancy, they mentioned that our existing one could not end until 8/12.

Depends how much interest they had in the property. You're saying that you'll effectively lose 6 weeks rent, but then so will the LL if they agree to your request.

Is there anything that makes you such amazing tenants so that the new LL would want to wait for you (like 1 year rent paid in advance or similar)?

we could pay 6 months in advance if needed, we did say that on our application. Can't really afford to pay an entire year.

The new place has tenants already, we think they're moving out on 30th. Which means that clearly landloard isn't allowing any time for any redecoration or repairs; house is lovely but there are lots of chips in paintwork etc as you'd expect for a house that's been rented for a couple of years - DP thinks landlord is being tight by not redecorating and then by asking us to start tenancy at such short notice too.

What worries me is if we don't get this house we'll have the same problem next time if any other landlord is going to ask for such a quick start time.

@Lovequinngoldberg

AFAIK the clause is enforceable, it's in the contract - and the letting agents are same for both properties, when we spoke to them and they said we were being offered the new tenancy, they mentioned that our existing one could not end until 8/12.

This doesn't mean it is enforceable. I'd get independent advice on that.

If the landlord thinks they can get someone else in sooner they'll say no. If they don't think they can they'll say yes.

But what do we do going forward though if we lose this house? We can't give notice on current property in the hope of finding somewhere else as no guarantee we will, and so we're likely to have the same issue with another house, DP simply won't pay a month-6 weeks extra rent.

Will have to keep looking I think.

DP isn't going to budge from his POV that they are dicking us over by asking us to move so quickly. And I can't see they will wait another month.

If keeping looking is your position, then you have nothing to lose by telling the landlord you can’t move until 6 weeks.

He says no, and he risks a longer vacant time trying to find tenants.

I'd see this as a lucky escape frankly. If the new landlord is trying to arrange back to back lettings with no time in between to sort out wear and tear/redecorate where necessary then that would suggest that he is tight. I suspect you will find that if you want something fixed in the months to come he will try to avoid shelling out if he possibly can.

@Lovequinngoldberg

But what do we do going forward though if we lose this house? We can't give notice on current property in the hope of finding somewhere else as no guarantee we will, and so we're likely to have the same issue with another house, DP simply won't pay a month-6 weeks extra rent.

That’s life. You either find a landlord who is happy for the tenancy to start at a later date, or you give notice on your current place and try to move quickly.

that's a fair point re landlord.

We've heard nothing back from the agents as yet, they had previously asked us (before the query over start date) to pay a holding deposit of one weeks rent (£250) - this is non refundable if we don't take the tenancy, but obviously at the moment I don't know if the start date is agreed so don't want to pay, I'm right aren't I?

We can't give notice on our current place as we risk being homeless, there is high demand here and this is the first place in 3 months that's fitted our criteria and where we've not been either beaten to it, or someone else's application preferred to ours. So it might take us 3 months to find somewhere else. But if all landlords are going to adopt the same approach we may as well give up looking as DP isn't going to budge on paying rent on 2 houses.

Definitely don’t pay a holding deposit until you have a mutually agreed start date, and if you can’t mutually agree you’ll have no choice but to walk away.

What is the rental market like in your area at the moment? In most parts of the country there’s very little available and dozens of tenants for each property. Would you be able to get another property again soon? Is the same thing likely to happen? It’s a landlords market at the moment unfortunately.

This happened to us earlier in the year, although our notice period was only 28 days (Scotland). New landlord would not budge on start date so we had a 3 week overlap. Annoying and expensive, but we kind of wrote it off as part of the cost of moving as the new place was worth it.

From the landlord's point of view waiting seven weeks for you to move in will cause seven weeks of lost rent. If someone suitable comes along who can move in sooner they are likely to take them over you. Unfortunately moving from one rental to another is usually a case of matching up the best offer/most suitable tenants with quick move in date. The only reason a landlord would wait is if refurbishment is needed or the property is difficult to rent.

Perhaps start looking closer to your notice period ie when you can give your month's notice.

It's really common when renting, in a busy property market, to have to budget for paying for the overlap. I think your DP is being unrealistic.
You can get advice from shelter about notices but it sounds correct; you give a months notice BUT that notice has to be the day before the new rent period starts. So if you rent from the first of the month you have to give notice dated on the 31st. So that means if you find somewhere on say, 8th, you have to wait a couple of weeks before you can give your notice. That's tenancy law, regardless of any contract amendments LLs might make.

You can ask the new ll if they'd start a tenancy later but in my experience there's enough demand that they don't really have a motivation to do so - they know EAs can get them other tenants quickly who'll be prepared to pay from the date the property is available.

I'm a LL and I certainly would not give up six or seven weeks rent. However, if you want this place it is not unreasonable to ask for it to be decorated.

There is high demand here as in most places I think.

It's difficult because you find somewhere on Rightmove, then it can take up to a week for them to arrange a viewing, because tenants are still there, then the viewing is the following week, then even if you apply same day it's 7-10 days until you hear back. And of course not every house we apply for (some are not suitable once we've viewed) and not every one we're successful on, we've viewed about 15, made 6 applications - some we just didn't bother applying for because they'd already had 10+ applications and it seemed pointless - and this is the first one we've been successful in, and we've been looking for quite a while now. But the process from seeing it on Rightmove to viewing/ applying/ decision can take anything from 2-6 weeks, so it's hard to tie it in with our notice dates.