Renting dilemma, any advice?

[TapselteerieO]

We have been given notice to quit after living here for 4 months, landlord is moving back from abroad. The letting agent has offered us a house round the corner, exactly the same, on a fairly bog standard housing estate - but the owners are decorating/refurbishing so it isn't ready yet. We are concerned these owners may do the same, let it out to us for a very short term and we will be left searching for a home again. My dc are upset about moving again, though luckily they haven't had to move school.

Of the last four landlords we have had 3 have been for lets under a year, two just 6 months because the LL's have decided to sell. The last house we were in for 3 years when we had a letter from the LL to say they wanted to renovate the house for themselves.

We went to view another house in a village by the sea, it is a lovely house, tiny fitted kitchen(we have our own white goods so would have to store them), but it has a dining room, lounge, two bedrooms on the first floor and two attic rooms, loo, family bathroom and one bedroom is en suite, small garden, garage. We could cross the road and be at the beach, it has a lovely pub on the corner, my children would get the school bus(we would still be in the catchment for their school) - the problem is, with council tax it would cost us £200 more a month to live in the lovely house, I have done the maths, and it is doable on our income, it just means we wouldn't have as much money to spend. The owner of the beach house has emigrated, this house was their holiday home, so potentially they will not be desperate to sell, if they have decided to rent?

I wish LL's had to give minimum term guarantees or something for renting, but at least had to be honest about short term renting, especially where children are involved.

Which house do we go for?

Yes, we will get deposit back from here though, we have never had a problem getting our deposit back yet, we have savings so not worried about paying deposit either. Another £100 in credit check with new letting agent is a bit off putting, knowing we have just been checked 4 months ago too!

Is there any chance of negotiating the beach house owners down a bit on the basis that you are brilliant tenants and liable to stay for quite a while?

I would agree - you are the ones in the driving seat if you're looking for a longer lease. We rented a few years ago, the house was advertised at a monthly rent of £1150 and it was November I think. We said we wanted a 12 month tenancy but on the basis that it was coming up to Christmas and people probably weren't looking to move (so fewer potential tenants), it would obviously save the landlord from having to find another tenant and potentially having the property empty for a while, we said we were prepared to pay a maximum of £1000. That was agreed!

We tried Narmada/Mandy, but they are not budging atm, DH is away just now with work, so I have to call the estate agent tomorrow with our decision, he seemed pretty confident of getting them to lower the rent when he met us last week, so maybe they just can't reduce it, houses in that village are £100,000 more expensive to buy than they are on average up here. I'm just not very good at bargaining either.

I just need to convince dh, because the more I think about it the more I really want to live there, wish being a good tenant mattered, we have so many good references(because of all our moves) - but the estate agent said they hand it all over to a credit check company and just take it from them, so it will all be financial, based on job/income and bank reference - we don't have credit cards/debt, but that and all our recent house moves may have a negative effect on our credit checks? We do have savings, because we are saving to buy.

We had a check 4 months ago, so if that was fine, I presume the next one will be too.