Three weeks to find rental

[Chipsahoy]

Just a rant. Everywhere is taken. Or has lots of applicants or the landlord will pick who they want. Or like today, the agent who had already been rather rude to us on the phone, showed my dh the house then declared she must meet me too and the landlord will want to meet us before we are allowed to apply.
Dh travelled 4 hours to view and she knew that. I could have gone too.

We have to be out of our home in three weeks. Searching County Durham, N Yorks. Cumbria and Northumberland. Can’t even find an air bnb or caravan. What are we supposed to do? House is exchanged so can’t pull out.

Have you tried asking on local Facebook pages for the areas you are considering? Most rentals round here are arranged privately and never make it to the EA. Even more so at the moment.

Also, would the agent/landlord be willing to ‘meet’ you on Zoom or similar? Could you suggest it?

She was very rude. She said she doesn’t “do virtual meetings or online applications”.

I have been looking on Facebook but haven’t requested yet. At this rate it will be storing our stuff and living in hotels. It’s madness.

Definitely look on Facebook, and post messages in all the local town pages. Look on Facebook marketplace too - there are loads on there that were never on Rightmove. You can also message airbnb hosts of decent looking places that say they're not available, just in case they're not actually booked out.

Have you got experience with pets? Petsitting sites worth a look - not a long term thing but will buy you time to look longer for a rental. Many owners are going on holiday in August so there are a few looking for sittters.

If all else fails, call the universities; there'll be loads of empty student houses until early October