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Original poster

Selling and moving into rented, any advice?

17 replies

AllIWant85 · 12/03/2013 21:16

We are currently in the process of putting our house on the market. Chance is we will be moving into a rental property for 6-12 months until we buy our next place.

Has anyone done this? What sort of rental place is best?

We have a 7 mo DS and a dog to take into consideration. I think we will need a house rather than a flat, probably only 1 bedroom, hopefully an all bills included deal.

Any advice on what to do? Or what not to do? Am apprehensive to say the least! :)

Thanks

OP posts:

MsDeerheart · 12/03/2013 21:40

I have rented after selling a couple of times -its worked for us -the dog may reduce quite lot the number of places you can potentially rent - I have never come across all bill included places either - also don't discount the expense of moving twice, and you will need money for a deposit

Original poster

AllIWant85 · 13/03/2013 09:18

Thanks, how does things like council tax,utilities and communications work if you are on a short term let? It may be one month or it may be 12 months, depends on when the 'right' house appears!

OP posts:

fergoose · 13/03/2013 09:24

I don't think you will find one with all bills included. You just tell the companies you have moved in, give meter readings and they send you a bill.

RCheshire · 13/03/2013 09:24

You're very unlikely to find a rental for less than 6 months - especially with the additional limiting factor of needing a place that will accept a dog. If you do find somewhere that will let by the week/month expect it to be very expensive!

In your position (I know, I'm there) people normally sign up to a 6 month AST and extend by 6 months if necessary. Remember that even if you move in and find a house to buy within one month, it may well take another 3 months to complete. Yes there's a chance you'll pay 1-2 months of rent when you've left the place but that's the price of having that flexibility.

When you move in somewhere you tell utilities/services. When you move out you update them.

Prawntoast · 13/03/2013 09:38

Have done this but would agree with others that you will be limited by the dog, most landlords won't want a tenant with a dog and others may be prepared to if you agree to either pay an additional deposit or have a clause added to the contract to the effect that you will have the property professionally cleaned ( this may include treating the property for fleas), we moved into a house where the previous tenants had a cat and they were made to get the house treated upon leaving. The other factor is you only wanting one bedroom, even if landlords are prepared to have pets they may balk at a dog in such a small property. If the property is a flat you may be further restricted in choice as the landlords lease may not allow dogs anyway.
I don't think you are likely to find an all bills included property, you tend to get this if you are sharing a property, so just renting a room.
Other than that it is a good idea and puts you in a much stronger position for purchasing your next home as you will be chain free. We were surprised that a relatively low offer was accepted by the vendors of the house we are buying, but the agent said as we were chain free they thought it worth taking the offer for the, hopefully, quick transaction.

Original poster

AllIWant85 · 13/03/2013 12:25

Hmmm, sounds like the dog will be the biggest issue. I've managed to find one place that is short term with all bills included as it's a holiday let - maximum 6 months at a time. Guess I need to find out if they accept pets!

If you had the option of living with family but you'd have to split up (Dh and dog, ds and me) would you do it? I dont think I can but maybe I'm not looking at the bigger picture.

OP posts:

RCheshire · 13/03/2013 13:23

Not a chance. It would be different if you knew it was for two weeks, or four weeks....but you've no idea. How long will it take you to find your next place? How long will that take to exchange & complete? A close relative's purchase has just taken 7 months end to end - extreme but it often takes longer than you initially expect.

Magimedi · 13/03/2013 13:23

I've done it several times & it has worked well. It has been for moves to different parts of the UK, so it's been great to get to know an area before buying.

You say you are putting your house on the market & you only want to rent somewhere small. What are you going to do with all your stuff whilst in this smaller property? Storage is not cheap & the rental price between, say, a two bed & three bed house will not be massive.

You will struggle with the dog - but if dog is well trained you may be able to negotiate somewhere by putting a bigger deposit down.

I would not want to split up my family.

HormonalHousewife · 13/03/2013 13:28

We couldnt find anywhere for 6 months and ended up having to go for 12m.

We have a dog too which seriously reduced our options - but we had a long term foster parent as a back up if we couldnt find anything.

Our LL turned into a nightmare. take loads of photos of the property when you move in and go through the itinery with a fine tooth comb.

BerthaTheBogCleaner · 13/03/2013 16:15

We did this. Still in rented, 18 months later. We've had two purchases fall through, then dh was working on the wrong kind of contracts and couldn't get a mortgage, and now we're looking again and can't find anywhere we want to buy.

Don't make yourself too uncomfortable in your rented place!

specialsubject · 13/03/2013 16:30

if you want all bills included and a dog, that's a holiday let which costs a great deal more than a normal let. Don't forget to budget for storage too.

the dog is a big issue -smell, noise, damage. The baby isn't an issue.

no normal let includes bills because it is leaving the landlord open to unlimited expense. The law does not allow for a proper assured tenancy of less than six months, which is a problem. I did use a landlord who rented month to month, he was fine, returned deposit, good place etc - but it has to be a matter of trust for that. (look on findaproperty.com for short lets)

on the plus side, if you are in rental with the money ready to go, you are dream buyers. Remember not to give notice to your landlord until contracts are exchanged.

Original poster

AllIWant85 · 13/03/2013 20:52

I'm glad I'm not the only one who wouldn't split the family.

I only really wanted all bills included because of convenience but if it's as simple as phoning companies with meter readings then that is no big deal. I think a short term let is more important.

Bertha your story is what terrifies me!! I don't want to get stuck in rented. I want to own my own house.

Luckily we dont have a big dog and he isn't one for chewing or scratching things. He doesn't have full access to our current house and this would be no different in a rented place.

What about a caravan? Or would I be mental?!

OP posts:

Prawntoast · 13/03/2013 22:19

I wouldn't split the family up but I would only move in with other family for a maximum of 2 weeks, would do my head in to be any longer.

I think your dog, unfortunately is going to be the biggest problem, it might be the best behaved in the world but a landlord won't know that and most will be wary - I have heard from friends in a similar situation that where a landlord has specified no pets they will often reconsider if offered a few extra £'s in deposit.

Don't bank on only being in a rented property for 6 months, you have no way of knowing how quickly you will find another property, I would ensure that you get a property you can be comfortable in, for that reason I wouldn't consider a caravan. Hot in Summer, cold in Winter, laundry? I wouldn't want to be cooped up in a caravan with a dog and a child that will be pretty mobile soon.

Could you foster the dog out to open up your options?

RCheshire · 13/03/2013 22:34

Like Bertha we've been renting our current place for over 18 months now - originally thought it would be a few months. It's not a problem - we chose a very nice place. It's taken so long due to a combination of not finding anywhere right for us (we are fussy!). As I mentioned earlier my relative's purchase has just taken 7 months, when we sold our last place that took 4-5 months from accepting an offer.

You really don't want to be stuck somewhere awful if the rental is longer than you currently expect.

If you assumed 6 months would you not be better off going for a six month AST let rather than holiday let - they normally work out very expensive over longer periods? Remember that your very very best case is ~2 months even if you find somewhere almost immediately and they don't have a chain - but I can bet it will be considerably longer!

Original poster

AllIWant85 · 13/03/2013 22:56

Hopefully in 6 months, even if we hadn't found a house we liked a family member would have completed their annex on their house so we would move in there. It would be self contained (and cheap!!)

RCheshire I guess I would be better off with a 6 month AST, just keen on convenience aspect of not having to sort bills I guess!! And also holiday lets generally have no issue with dogs!

I couldn't foster my dog. He had a very rough start with another family and we rescued him but he is very timid, especially with new people. It wouldn't be fair on him really.

If only I could convince my parents that life with a baby and a dog isn't stressful!! :o Then we could live there!

All of your replies are really helping so thank you. :)

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Misty9 · 13/03/2013 23:05

We've just had to move to another rented property (long story) but really want to buy our own place so the plan was to be here 6 months max while we find and buy. BUT, the stress and cost of moving is so much (and we do it a LOT) that we've decided not to go through that again this year and will put house plans on hold for now.

So don't underestimate the toll it can take on you to move so frequently, and definitely don't underestimate the costs involved. It has cost us over £300 in fees and £360 in removal costs, and that's not including the cleaning costs for the last place. it will cost another £100 in 6 months if we renew the tenancy too. I hate renting.

RCheshire · 13/03/2013 23:09

Misty does make a fair point. We've been lucky in that we've been able to extend our rental at 6m, 12m and 18m as we haven't bought somewhere. If we'd had to move each 6 months then I am sure our fussiness levels would have dropped radically and we'd have bought again by now! Mind you the landlord makes a fortune out of us so he's not acting as a charity...

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