When and how to secure rental

[Chipsahoy]

We have sold our house, the chain is small with just our buyer and their buyer who is a ftb. Looks like exchange will be next month.

We are moving into rental accommodation but we don’t know how to secure a rental property, which all seem to be for a year, without risking owing a year of rent if the house sale falls through.

So do we wait for exchange? If so won’t that mean we only have a week or two to get a rental? There aren’t many is the biggest issue! We have agreed to rental so they don’t have to wait for us to find a house we want, but it’s not easy to find rental either.
I’m getting no joy with estate agent or conveyancer when I try to explain the predicament or whether they are ok with a long exchange and complete. They are just going forward with all the searches etc and haven’t confirmed whether they are ok with our position except to say on the enquiries “confirm your position on your rental” to which I replied, we cannot begin to find a rental until we are closer to exchange. No response since. I hate how unknown the whole process is!

We have no family to stay with and are a large family so can’t just check into a hotel or caravan or some such.

It’s all very confusing and anxiety inducing!
Just a moan. Any advice?

You can ask for a period between exchange and completion - now is your chance to negotiate this.
A couple of weeks is usual, although some people agree longer periods, so you could ask for maybe 4 weeks or so, depending on how long you think it will take?

Thanks. Four weeks should be ok.
I’ve emailed our conveyancer and reiterated our concerns that we have nowhere to go and we do not know when we can begin to search.
We also stated on the original contract with the questions, that we require a longer than usual period between exchange and completion. Again at enquiries we returned the other week. We have told the estate agent and even the buyer themselves when they came to view.
It’s just that no one has confirmed that they are ok with this. It’s the unknown. I suppose we just go ahead and wait because we have told them, and have it in writing that we have done so.

We have just done this albeit we knew we were going into rental from the outset as we’re relocating.

There is a shortage of rental stock (particularly houses) at the moment & you can’t enter into a letting contract until you’ve exchanged - the letting agent will want proof. We had one letting agent refuse to let us view a house until we’d exchanged!

Your solicitor should know this, our paralegal certainly did.

I would suggest trying to secure a month between exchange and completion to find something. We ended up taking a day off work mid-week, lining up everything we liked on Rightmove. Fortunately we found something suitable, albeit in a different village to where we’ll hopefully end up.

Yea same. We knew would rent as also relocating.

Thanks for the info re exchange. It’s the unknown that’s scary. I think we will ask for four weeks. We have been upfront from the start that we will be renting and require time.

Fortunately we can rent anywhere. As long as it’s north! We aren’t tied to a town so have a wide net.