Going into rented without committing for a whole year?

[Joeytribbianiz]

Can anyone explain this to me? I keep reading about people "going into rented" after their house has hold and before they've found another to buy, as if it's really easy, but every rental contract I've ever had has been locked in for six months to a year, which seems like an incredibly long time to commit to something to tide you over in between bought houses. How do you find these incredibly understanding landlords that let you stay for a few months, or is everyone taking a whole year in rented in-between houses?

The minimum legal contract is six months, to give tenants at least that much stability. I guess Air B&B or holiday lets, serviced apartments etc might make a month-to-month deal with you.

We rented between buying and selling, but found it very difficult to find a landlord to accept us.

We had many months rent in our bank account and would have been willing to pay 6 months upfront. However the landlords for obvious reasons wanted longer term commitment

We eventually found a landlord desperate enough to take the gamble on our house sale taking enough time for them to make a profit.

We were able to negotiate a £50k discount from being in a proceedable position as a result of paying 5k rent, so glad we perceived with it

We rented on a 6 month contract after selling our flat before finding our next home. Ended up being there 11 months as after 6 months fixed it transferred to a rolling monthly contract. We didn’t specify that’s what we were doing and the landlord didn’t ask up to commit to more time after the first 6 months. It put us in a really strong position to buy but also meant we didn’t have to rush into the next property. We had a month overlap between the rental and new home to get it ready and move with no pressure.

We sold at a great price, but our house purchase fell through, there's nothing else we like and can't find a LL to accept us (our sole income is rental income, ironically!) And I don't want to upset our great tenants by giving notice and moving into one of our rentals so we'll be staying in an AirBnb for a month then touring in a caravan.

Trying to see it as an adventure!

From a landlord’s perspective, there is a lot of admin and costs involved in setting up a tenancy, especially if they are using an agent who will take the 1st months rent in fees. It is also illegal to take more than 6 weeks deposit. Letting out a property is very tightly regulated now and any breach of the regulations can result in large fines/ an inability to evict tenants even if they are trashing the place. I suspect that only a landlord who is struggling to find tenants or who has particular personal circumstances, aubergine planning to sell soon, would consider it.

Or be planning to sell soon!

Just seen you are also a landlord @StrangeCoat so apologies if you know all this already.

@whataboutbob

Just seen you are also a landlord *@StrangeCoat* so apologies if you know all this already.

Absolutely - to be totally honest I wouldn't rent to me, either!

To be fair I can understand why landlords wouldn't want to - this is my question really, I see people talking all the time about going to rented for a short period of time - how?!

Short term lets OP. Usually more expensive than longer term contracts.

We're trying to find a short term let. It's impossible!

We’re also trying to find short term. We’ve decided for us it’s worth committing the 6 months rent even though we only need
3/4 and we’ll only rent with a 6 month break clause and leave them. It’s cheaper than serviced apartments nearby. I imagine people do similar because the money they save on being not in a chain is worth it!

So do you mean you sign a 12 month contract but it has a clause that you can leave at 6 months?
Sorry it's all new to me!

We had to take a 9 month contract as the minimum we could find that was ok with us having the cats......

Enjoying a bit of rest and regroup before back on the hunt.

How long do you think it will take? By the time you move in and find somewhere, negotiate an offer and progress.