Rental notice help

[Ashara]

Hi, we've been given notice by our Landlord as they want to sell the house. That's all fine with us as we were already in the process of buying our own place anyway but wanted to wait to give notice so we could have an easy transition and move our stuff gradually. We've been given until 31/2/2022 but we'll be gone way before that.

My question is: do we have to give notice back to them as to when we want to move out? This is the only place we've ever rented & we have no idea what we're doing really. I think if we'd given notice it should be in line with the monthly rental payment, but as they've already given us notice can we just say we're leaving on X date and pay pro-rata rent? We don't want to show our hand too early as our new house isnlt ready yet (new build). All of the advice on line is what to do if you don't want to leave having been given notice but we do! Many thanks for any advice.

When does your current contract end? Are you on monthly rolling, or still in an agreement?

Normally just negotiate with the landlord - if they’re selling they’re usually happy for you to leave before the date they have given but otherwise you’d need to give a month’s notice

If you want to leave earlier you would need to give due notice. How long can you afford both?

Thanks for the replies. It’s a rolling monthly contract as we’ve been here 5 years. We can afford to have a few weeks overlap so giving a months notice will be fine, hopefully we can negotiate if we need to. Thanks again

Be careful as new build deadlines can be delayed, keep on top of what's happening at the building site by visiting regularly if you can and make sure you get early access to do some snagging.

Check your AST agreement re. notice period.

But also talk to your landlord. Make sure you are on the same page.

Your contract is king here. What does it say? Usually a fixed term 12m AST as standard has a break clause which allows you to terminate with 1/2 months notice after a certain period.

We can advise further once we know what it says.

Okay. If you are on a periodic tenancy (so your fixed term has finished and you haven't signed a new contract) then you only have to give a month's notice. The end date the landlord has given you is only relevant if you are happy to stay that long. So to answer your question , yes you give written notice if it's before the date your LL has given. That notice must be at least a month.

That means when you know you want to move out you can give a months notice and be free to go. You would only pay for the period until you move out (e.g if you normally pay rent 1st to 30/31st and you move out on the 14th having given a months notice then divide your monthly rent by 30/31 and pay 14 days worth. Most people would normally time it so you move out on the last day of the month though. Just a bit easier

You may need a strategy here though. I'd normally say to tell the LL that actually you'll be out before then so they can make arrangements too and you can both be on the same page but if you think they may call your bluff and come in with a quicker notice period you might want to hold off so you are calling the timing.

Should also have said that you don't need to do anything at this stage (unless you want to move out a month from now!). You can just say 'fine' to the landlord re their notice to you for the time being and still hand them your notice to leave earlier if you choose between now and then.

What caught us off guard when our LL gave notice so they could sell was a complete refusal to be flexible on the notice date.

We had to give notice in line with rental date so no option to pro rata the month's notice to bridge two rental periods (eg our rental date was 1st of each month, we secured property for 15th of month but we had to pay for another 1st to 1st rental period rather than a 15th to 15th extending our time at the property by an unnecessary 2 weeks).

As we were giving a month's notice after being told they wanted us out this felt particularly spiteful. But the rules are there so we abided.

Hopefully your LL isn't an arse and just allows a straight month notice.