Going into rented after completion ? Process

[IHeartNiles]

Our onward purchase fell through (separate thread). We’re viewing anything new that comes on but in all likelihood it’s going to take months. Likely to complete on our sale early Jan.

So we start viewing rentals now but don’t confirm until exchange? Likely to exchange next week. What’s a reasonable offer on a rental? Full asking or negotiable? Is a 6 month let with option to extend a possibility?

We had the same situation and we found that the rental market was very competitive with hardly anything coming on (this was at the start of the first lockdown though when everything shut down).

We ended up having to offer asking. It was advertised as a 12 month rental but the agreement has a break clause at six months so we can leave earlier if needed.

Good luck!

Yes I wouldn't confirm a rental until you've exchanged.

A lot of landlords want 12 months + AST but 6 months isn't unusual, if you let the 6 month AST 'expire' (don't sign another 6 months) than you'll automatically go onto a rolling periodic tenancy and you'll be free to leave with 4 weeks' notice after the initial 6 months.

If you handed notice during the initial 6 months you'd still be liable to pay up to the full 6 months.

I've not heard of negotiating on rental price but if you find something that's been advertised for ages then it's worth a shot!

Another idea is staying in a holiday let, long term Airbnb sort of thing, as that way utilities etc are included, but they're furnished so your stuff would need to go into storage.

After looking into it, we've done AirBnB rather than rental when our purchase fell through (our sale completed last week).

Every price is negotiable. Your issue is timing as rentals may not be available for 2 months, unless you get lucky. More likely is having to pay over the odds for somewhere at short notice :( At least it will keep the sale alive though :)

Yes, everything is open to negotiation. We were in a similar position a few years ago. We moved in between Christmas and New Year. The timing could actually work in your favour - if a landlord doesn't find a tenant in the next couple of weeks, the property is likely to be empty over the Christmas period, maybe beyond. They can only say no.

I think the property that we rented was on for £1150pm, we agreed £1k.

Thanks everyone. One we like is available early Jan which works well. Quite a few have been sitting on for a while. Not much air bnb here. Worst case we can go in with family for a month but would be a squeeze.

short term or not, read how to rent on gov.uk to make sure you understand rights and responsibilities on both sides. Too many cases on here of clueless tenants being shafted by dodgy landlords.

the way to get rid of dodgy landlords is not to rent from them, even for 6 months. There is always a choice, even in London.

from a (non-dodgy) landlord.

Will have a read up thank you