People at the end of chain putting pressure on the rest

[Bluetinkerbell]

We're currently renting a house. But we are not really under contract, as we should have signed a new one beginning of October but didn't as the letting agent never send it to us. We let him know that we found a bigger house and will be moving possibly beginning of December. We didn't give him definite date yet and at the time we let him know nothing was definite yet, no contracts have been signed for new house either.
Without our consent our letting agent has put our house on the rental market, which was let within a few days and only a few viewings.
Ever since he has been asking us about a moving date.
Our new landlords don't know their moving date yet, they have bought a house and are waiting to hear back from solicitors when they can move.
Today we got a message from our letting agent, that the people who will come in our current house have given their 1 month notice and will be moving in here on 3rd of December
Our letting agent has put our house on the rental market too early, he should have waited till we could have given him a date that is was available.
What do we do now? What happens if we need to be out of here and can't move into our new house yet?
It is so stressful and I really don't like to keep phoning our new landlords for news as I know they feel stressed about it as well, and they can't do anything about it either.

It is difficult in this situation. We've all been there, stuck in a chain of people and dates that don't add up.

I think that if your old contract has expired, you and your landlord have a month by month contract, as this is what normally happens. Under this, you and your landlord can each give a months notice of the tenancy ending. And now you have been given notice that your landlord needs your house back in a months time. As this is presumably as much notice as you would have given them, I can't see what they have done wrong

If you need to move out before your new house is ready, a removal company can pack everything up for you and store it for as long as you need. You can stay with friends or family. We did this a couple of years ago to keep a chain moving and sell our house.

thanks Onlyaphase I'm not used to the way of moving house in England, lived in Belgium before, where it works differently.

Rolling periodic contract normally requires the tenant to give one month's notice but the landlord to give two months notice.

Have you had a formal notice (i.e. written Section 21?)

OP- rolling contracts default to a months notice for the tenant and TWO for the LL so thats not right - the Letting Agent is in the wrong here. Plus I would have thought that they would need a formal eviction notice like a Section 21 which they should have issued to you before notifying you of the leaving date. They are trying it on BIG style.

oopps x posted with Tyler80!

Have you given them any notice of your intention to leave by writing and/or intimated a leaving date?

No we haven't had any formal notice, just a text message from the letting agent. We're also not on a rolling contract. Our 6 month contract finished the end of September and haven't signed a new contract yet. We were going to ask to be on a rolling contract so we had a bit more flexibility in finding a new house. When we found the new house, we let the letting agent now we wanted to move sometime beginning of December and to ask if that was ok for them. I can understand that they want our house to be let asap after we move out, but they could have waited just a bit longer for us to let them know when we can.

If you're 6 month fixed term has finished and you haven't signed a new contract, your tenancy automatically becomes a rolling periodic tenancy. So you are on a rolling contract.

It's officially known as a "Statutory Periodic Tenancy"

tyler thanks that's interesting! so if we are on a rolling contract, and we haven't given our official notice yet, as we don't know when we will be moving out, they can't do anything... :)
and they need to give 2 months notice! think you have made my day

Agree with others. The LL must give two months notice and issue a S21 to eveict you.

The agent has messed up. A text is not notice and even if it was it still needs to be two months.

They need to go away and read the regulations. Talk to the housing officer in yoru local council - they will tell you the rules and you can then tell the agent you have talked to the council and the agent will back off. You cannot be made homeless thsi way and that is the law.

Agents are often badly trained amateurs (not always) like many house selling agents.

The 2 month notice has to be aligned with your tenancy start date too (that goes for your 1 month notice as well)

e.g. if you originally moved in on the 5th of the month and want to end your tenancy in December, you need to give your notice by the 4th of November. If you gave notice on the 6th of November your tenancy wouldn't be surrendered until the 4th of January.

thanks all! So I think we will give notice by the end of this month to move out end of December. And then show our goodwill to the new tenants that they can move in earlier when we can move out earlier than that!
So actually we're not in trouble at the moment, but the people who are going to rent our house put themselves in an awkward position as they will have to move out theirs, possibly before they will be able to move in here... serves them right for putting pressure on us...