To want to leave tenancy early

[iloveyoubutilovememore]

Hi all, hoping to get some advice on our current situation.

We are in the process of buying our first home. Have rented for eight years (London and now Norwich) and finally found ourselves in the position where we could buy a house we like. Made an offer back in July which got accepted and now, finally, everyone in the chain is ready to complete. It's all been up in the air with many unanswered questions over the last couple of months. We've just received an email to say that everyone else wants to complete on 11th December.

Our issue is that the rented house we live in currently requires two months notice before leaving. Meaning that if we give notice now, we still wouldn't technically be out of the contract until 17th January. Our lettings agent isn't aware of us buying a property as our mortgage broker advised us not to tell them until we exchange. It looks like it's going to cost us a lot to do this? Or am I missing something?

an overlap is sometimes unavoidable unfortunately.
Sounds like your overlap will be just over one month if you trigger the 2 months notice today. Sadly it is a common expense as trying to dovetail the leaving of one property with entering another doesn't always happen neatly. The worst thing you could do is collapse the chain by delaying, so maybe you could ask the question if a delay could be accommodated but with xmas round the corner from the current preferred date I can't see that going down well.
I know someone who found the overlap advantageous as they were able to move belongings into the new property in a gradual way which allowed them to really get tidy in the new house and not bring across any crap, kids could be looked after in one house not underfoot while other parent went and got things straight - but you may already have de-cluttered and that might not suit your circumstances etc
Congratulations on finally getting there - hope it all works out!

First of all, don't give notice until you've actually exchanged - it could still all fall through before that.

Since you're planning to vacate the property before the end of the contract date, the letting agent might agree to let you off the hook if they manage to get a new tenant in sooner. But that would be at their discretion, and they may not be able to get someone in that quickly anyway.

Just overlap, we have done it rented to rented then rented to bought. It gives you an empty house to decorate, change any flooring etc plus give it a good clean, move your stuff in at leisure and clean down the rented property.

The way we looked at it was the deposit covered a month's rent anyway. Don't give notice until you have exchanged because it can still fall through. On this house we had (pre-covid) a 3 week exchange to completion to allow the vendors to find a rental property in their new area.

We've just had this issue. We unfortunately had 2 house sales fall through and both times had given our landlord notice, luckily she let us retract it but the 3rd time we waited until exchange which meant an overlap of a month where we'd completed and moved but still had a month left on tenancy. Fortunately you tend to pay rent in advance and our first mortgage payment was a month after completing so the cost was spread out and didn't end up too costly x

When we moved out of our rental to our own home we didn’t want to give notice to early so waited till the right time - but we made sure we had money aside for the 2 months rent. We moved out and it gave me time to clear/clean the place. The landlords then realised (we’d lived there for 6 years) that they wanted to do some work to the place but as we still in theory rented it could only access for pre arranged viewings - so we came to an agreement to leave our contract early! All parties happy

If it is empty for a month or so remember to contact council to get a reduction on council tax.

Our issue is that the rented house we live in currently requires two months notice before leaving. Meaning that if we give notice now, we still wouldn't technically be out of the contract until 17th January. Our lettings agent isn't aware of us buying a property as our mortgage broker advised us not to tell them until we exchange. It looks like it's going to cost us a lot to do this? Or am I missing something?

You may need to double check your contract as it might be 2 full months so would depend on your contract roll over date. The other issue is that they can not charge you the rent if they can get someone else into the property so how quickly do you think they can relet it?

It's just one of the costs of buying a house when you're renting and you need to account for it in your budget.

I wouldn't give notice until exchange in case something goes wrong.

Like others we had a few weeks overlap. The landlord could market it straight away and in the end we didn't need to pay the second month's rent as someone moved in.

It's very frustrating but largely unavoidable. You could try negotiating a shorter notice, I've done this previously by assisting them find the next occupant, they were ready to move in when I wanted to leave so no one lost any money. I've done this about 3 times actually come to think of it!

Are you sure as the tenant, you don't only need to give one months notice, whereas your landlord has to give you two months notice?

england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/ending_a_periodic_tenancy

Notice for statutory periodic tenancies

1 month's notice for a monthly tenancy
4 weeks’ notice for a weekly tenancy

Just part of life unfortunately. When we bought our first house, we wanted to avoid double costs (mortgage & rent) and decided to end our tenancy when it came up in the October. We moved in with my parents as we thought we’d move in early November & be there 2/3 weeks. Then we hit several delays & got the keys on 23rd December 🙈🙈

Most rentals are a months notice though, so double check!

As a pp has said, most solicitors would advise you NOT to give notice until you have exchanged contracts as you could find yourself homeless if the sale falls through. That inevitably leads to an overlap which is unavoidable usually.

I'm in the same position, we had to find a rental after selling my flat but hadn't bought something new. We were intending on staying until early next year but still casually looking at the market, saw a house we both love, and bought it.

I'm a bit nervous about telling the agency we will be leaving soon. When we were shown round we said we were looking for a 6 month lease but the agency said the owner was looking for 9 months. However there's nothing in the signed paperwork stipulating a specific duration/contract of tenancy, it only says they need a month's written notice if you are leaving...

So looking at previous replies we would be best waiting until we have the keys to the new place before giving notice on this rental in case the sale falls through?! I'm nervous in case they try to get more money out of us or something.

Tenants usually have a 1 month notice. Check with your agent after exchange.

It would be difficult for most tenants to give 2 months notice given that new to-let properties normally have a 4-5 week timeline to occupancy.