Moving into rented to be chain free - tips and experiences

[EverydayCook]

We recently lost out on sealed bids for a house we loved, and there’s literally nothing else to buy. We’ve mentally checked out of our current home which is too small, and can’t be extended. Given the frenetic market conditions (multiple buyers bidding on each property) we’ve decided the best thing to do is continue with our sale, move into rented and be chain free, putting us in a stronger position to buy.

The slight problem is that there’s very little to rent, everything is wildly expensive compared to pre-covid, so we’d have to store most of our stuff and squeeze ourselves and the kids into a two bed property to avoid wasting huge sums on rent.

We’re hoping that we won’t need more than six months but have no idea how easy that is to negotiate, especially in this market.

If you’ve done it, what are your top tips, and did it work out?! I’m dreading it but think it’s the right thing to do for the long term.

Thanks @SaltySeaAir - I really hope you are in your new house soon! I’m apprehensive about renting as we haven’t done it for so long. We always had lovely landlords before we were married and no problems, I really hope we can find the same again…

We did it two years ago we weren’t 100% on where we wanted to live between a few villages so when we sold we rented for a year in one of the villages. That gave us time to work out exactly what we wanted, what where our redlines and put is in a great position to buy.

Worked out really well for us and we learnt some of the things we thought were must haves really weren’t.

Maybe helped we got a bargain that we can live in and add a load of value easily

Did this recently and wouldn't do it again!! The market changed between times (feb 20-march 21!!!!!) and I felt very homesick.

We where lucky that we had a cracking landlord and once our 12 months ran out we went to a rolling contract and only had to give a months notice.

With regards to the 6 month tenancy- as the previous poster said, it automatically goes onto a rolling tenancy. They can ask you to sign for another 6 months, but they can't force you too. If you don't agree, their only option is to serve you notice, which at the minute is a minimum of 4 months (but may be 2 months again by the time you're at that point). So basically, once you're in, the landlord doesn't really have any power to get you out again for at least 8 months.

We've rented in between houses, worked well for us. We ended up being there for 2 years nearly

Thanks @KnobJockey - that's really helpful. I think six months fixed might be the way to go in that case. I'm hearing that people have ended up in rented for a year or more but I'm really hoping we can be in our new home within eight months of completing our sale!

I've just thought of a question - for those who have done it, how did you agree a completion date with your buyer? We need time to find something suitable to rent and arrange appropriate storage nearby. There just isn't much on the rental market and I'd want time to view a decent number and likely lose out on a few before we secure something.

Do you stipulate say four or six weeks from exchange? The nightmare scenario is we don't find anything and end up with nowhere to live! I have no idea what we'd do...

We stipulated 4 weeks between exchange and completion and were checking out rentals constantly online in the run up to exchange. It worked out, but the agents for this rental were dicks and it was a close run thing. We had it, in the sense that application was accepted, checks done etc, but the landlords faffed about for ages and in the end only signed contracts the day before we were due to get the keys. The agents couldn't have cared less. We had a week overlap before completion so if it had all fallen apart we would have had time to stick everything in storage and figure something out. I think we were just unlucky with accidental landlords and useless agents.

We did find a 6 month rental and had already viewed the house we've ended up buying before we completed on our sale, so we've had a 4 month overlap as our purchase went through really quickly. We're happy with that but a 12 month tenancy might have been a bit tougher to swallow. As it is, we are having various bits of work done to the house before we move in and it's been great not living there through the dusty and dirty stuff, plus easier for the trades.

Hi there,
We were in exactly the same position as you. Completed a few weeks ago. We were panicking because there was nowhere to rent. Needed enough room for us, the kids and all of our stuff because we just don’t trust storage.
We set up an alert on rightmove and onthemarket and after a week or so, a house came up. We did everything right, offered straight away, full rental, all conditions met. But we were gutted to find that we were outbid by a couple with no kids (apparently the kids previously had wrecked the house) and the paid more and signed a two year tenancy! We just couldn’t compete.
We decided to still progress our sale and my daughter (8) and I went on the charm offensive. We popped into a few letting agents to give our details and have “a chat.”
No joy at first but then…..one agent after a while really warmed to us, and then all of a sudden the computer was no longer saying no! We were told about where we are now renting, and we bagged it off market. I honestly don’t know if we’d have gotten sorted if we hadn’t done that. So my advice is, be proactive. Phone or even better pop in to absolutely everywhere so that they get to know you and have your details.
Good luck Op. You are absolutely doing the right thing. We are now in rented and I am spending my life on Rightmove hoping the dream comes on the market soon but in the meantime I’m being just as pro active trying to buy as I was trying to find somewhere to rent!

You may find that you have to sign a 12 months tenancy at the moment. We have had to because of the market. They are all 12 months minimum.
We paid a holding deposit and then paid a month upfront before signing to keep it secured until exchange. We signed the tenancy after exchange and it meant that we had more time to move as had 4 weeks before completion.
We are in York though. The market may be kinder and less fierce where you are so a 6 month tenancy may be accepted.

@knobjockey whoah wait what? Can you please explain the thing about staying on after a 6 month fixed tenancy agreement ends?! We have signed up for 6 months and I'm so worried we won't complete in that time... why would we be able to stay longer?!

One week into our12 month rental. It’s been a good decision so far. We moved ourselves with a van so saved thousands. Which you can’t do if you sell and buy same day.
12 month contract which we wanted as sales are taking so long.

We asked for 4 weeks between exchange and complete and were up front about this from the start. Found a house within a week.
Going to settle in for another week or so then start hunting. Kinda assume we will have to run a rent and mortgage together for a while but factoring that in to the price of moving plus savings of removals means it’s not ridiculous.
Good luck.

We did it as we were combining 2 households. A years rental with a 7 month break clause. We asked for £100 pcm discount as it had been on the market a while. Shabby, grubby and everything really cheap. It was a horrible experience. We went into rented last June and were laid back about searching as we thought we had loads of time-bad mistake. If you do it start searching straightaway. We lost out on a few even though we were chain free. We had bad luck with 2 purchases falling through no fault of our own. However- we saw a house in a lovely village, we were the first to see and got it as we were the only party not sale dependent. We moved in July and we are so happy we live here. We would not have got it had we not been in rented.

Tips:
Start your search straightaway.
Ask for a break clause if long rental.
Video and photograph everything when you move in and annotate the lease with observations on the condition of the property. Go through with fine tooth comb.
Be prepared for landlord to be grabby bastards. It took a month to get leaking loo fixed. Same with broken shower. We asked to extend at the end of our lease for a few days to tie in with our move. Refused and had to lay extra months rent.
Try to keep as much as you can packed.
Emphasise the fact you’re in rented with EAs and check they have that correct-one agent had us down as trying to sell our house.

Good luck! Things will work out even though they can be really stressful. We love our house so renting was worthwhile-especially as we sold 2 houses.

One thing to add- we were paying 1100 pcm. It’s now been let for 1500.

We have/are struggling massively to secure a rental house. We sold and completed our house sale in June, after 3 years trying to sell so we didn't want to lose our buyer. We moved into a rental house in the same village through someone we know but have to be out by early September. We knew we could only be here for 3 months but it meant we managed to complete our sale. We live fairly rurally with kids at our local school and to say we are struggling to find anywhere nearby suitable is an understatement. We are resigned to the fact we will have to sign a 12 month contract as we are in competition with child free couples who are willing to sign up for 2 to 3 years! The market is crazy. Yes you have to check all the rental websites every couple of hours but I do think when the agents or landlords see thst we've just sold a house, they know we are probably looking to buy soon so are not the long term tennants they really want. I totally understand it from their point of view but we are struggling. Good luck!

Our rent is £2250 per month. It has artex on the ceilings, bidets in both retro bathrooms, carpet in the downstairs loo and horrific wallpaper 😱 we’ve nicknamed it 1989 😂 it also smelt of curry powder when we moved in. It’s feeling a little better now we’ve made it liveable, worked the arse off the NEOM diffusers and burned a ridiculous amount of scented candles!

@surreygirl1987, ASTs (assured shorthold tenancies) are for an initial fixed period. After that, they become a rolling periodic tenancy (monthly assuming that's how often you pay rent). At that point, you'd have to give one month's notice to leave (typically coinciding with rent payment date) and your landlord will have to give whatever statutory notice applies at the time (no less than two months).

That's just how ASTs work, so don't worry about going beyond 6 months.

(Even if your landlord does give you notice, you don't have to leave, as it's a notice to start court proceedings to get you out if you don't vacate. That's another thread though.)

We did this and it's the only reason we got our current house. It was a 'one of a kind' and there was a lot of interest- but we were the only people not in a chain...
The other benefit is it's much easier to move. We had a few weeks overlap at each end, so moved everything ourselves over a few days. It also meant we could clean and do a few jobs on the new house without all our stuff in it.

We did this and it worked out well. We had good reasons for moving into rented - it had taken us ages to find a buyer for our old place and we didn’t want to lose them, but equally didn’t want to compromise or be rushed into a decision on our forever home; plus we were crammed into a flat with two small children and were desperate for space (this was pre-COVID and would have been even worse over the last 18 months!). For us, it helped that we could immediately see the benefits of renting (more space) to balance out the downsides e.g. the landlord taking ages to fix things and not really feeling like the place was ours.

Being in rented definitely helped us secure our new home. All the houses we offered on during our search had more than one chain-free buyer and when we had something to sell we just couldn’t compete with them. We managed to get our house for a good price because we were flexible and able to move quickly.

Re tenancy length, everywhere was advertised with a 12 month tenancy but we asked for a six month break clause when making our offer and it was agreed straightaway - we did also offer full asking price on the rent and are “good tenants” in professional jobs with no pets. It was a good job we did as we ended up completing on our purchase within 4 months of moving in and would have been stuck paying rent plus mortgage for a long time without the break clause.

Also - moving with small children, especially more than once, is hard work. Unless finances are tight, get a removal company that packs for you. Best money we ever spent!

We did this years ago. Worked out brilliantly for us, but actually we were happy in the rental (lovely house, great landlord) so we ended up staying there for almost 2 years until we found the perfect house (which we're in now and wouldn't have got if we hadn't been chain free).

Agree with a pp, make relationships with the estate agents / letting agents now. Go into the shops, be really friendly, explain your position. Most of the agents here are grouped together on one road and I used to just pop in every week, ask if anything new was in the pipeline etc. Be genuine, don't mess them around and it will pay dividends in getting a rental and ultimately in getting your next property.

We are doing this now, moving into rented on Thursday and although all referencing is done, deposits paid etc we still haven't signed the contract yet. It's been a nightmare tbh, I'd forgotten what a pain in the arse lettings agents were. We weren't able to see the place we are renting in person, just had to take it on the basis of a video (as moving to a different city so wouldn't have been able to view in time - it would have been taken).

It's like the hunger games with rentals out there right now. My lettings agents said they were only booking in 6 viewings as they knew one of them would take it, often less than 24 hours after putting it up.

With ours, it got put on Rightmove at 10am, I phoned the agent at 10.05am after viewing the video, and by 11am we'd put the initial holding deposit down and the property was taken off the market. In the hour between it going up and us securing it, 6 viewings had already been booked for that same day.

And BTW every lettings agent I spoke to said there was no point in checking in with them to get stuff before it went on the market, as there was so much competition they were just putting everything on rightmove. First come first served. My advice is check every hour to see what's come up and call immediately, don't dither.

Why has it gone like this? The house we have just left had been on the market for months before we took it on. It was big, but shabby and grubby. After we left, it was snapped up at an extra 400 pcm. Why?

Everyone's doing what we're doing and moving into rental properties between purchases.

In our case it's because the market for London flats has flat lined so dramatically that once we had buyers we wanted the sale through ASAP and therefore did not want to be in a chain.

@Thesandmanishere

And BTW every lettings agent I spoke to said there was no point in checking in with them to get stuff before it went on the market, as there was so much competition they were just putting everything on rightmove. First come first served. My advice is check every hour to see what's come up and call immediately, don't dither.

It worked for me. The rental we are in didn’t go on the market so I don’t think you can say that. You can’t be proactive enough imo.