Moving to a London rental when trying to buy - break clause

[Magnoliainbloom]

I need to leave marital property soon. I have been searching for something to buy in London without success, so will have to rent. I have only spoken to one agent but she said a 6 month break clause isn't common and short-term rentals are very expensive. Any advice? Do I just accept I’ll be renting for a year? Never rented before and so not sure.

We had to rent recently when we had work done. It is hard to get a 6month break because of the landlord costs in getting a place fit to rent. If however you think you’re likely to move, find a suitable place to purchase, agree terms and complete within 6months, you’re quite ambitious and will likely be limiting yourself to chain free purchases - a small pool. I think you need to suck up the year’s rental but all the same since it’s temporary, I probably wouldn’t bang nails in the wall etc to avoid having to repaint at the end - save that budget for your new house. Means you’re more likely to be able to move in a relaxed way/ get things done at the new place without being in there, which is a luxury in itself

We’ve always asked for and been granted 6 month break clause, so after that time can give 2 months notice-worth shopping around and asking. If you can afford it, can you have a cross over so no stress to get a house within a certain period and then you can do decorating etc before moving in?

@Lcb123 whereabouts are you? Estate agents wouldn’t even allow us to view knowing we needed a six month break - their clients were only interested in long term renters

Sounds like a lazy agent who doesn't have any on her books but thinks you will be a good tenant so still wants you.

Call around more agents. I have had loads with 6 month break clauses. And no, they have never been more expensive.

Maybe it's different where you are due to demand. Tbh the rental market is bonkers atm and LLs have the luxury of demanding whatever they want. It might be a numbers game, call as many as you can.

If you are having no joy, offer to pay them six months in advance.

If that still doesn't work, look on spareroom.co.uk where people advertise flatshares and see if you can rent a granny annexe in someone's home rather than a room in their actual house.

Please don’t listen to the people above who have had “loads” of 6 month break clauses - yes that may have been true in the past but the rental market right now is so insane that people who aren’t committing for THREE YEARS. Take the year, be relaxed about finding a place, don’t mention break clauses.

Thank you both. This is very helpful.

@Lcb123 I did see something I liked and out an offer in but the bastarding agent was using me to compete against a developer who was buying 2 properties from the same agent. I told I wasn’t prepared to get into a bidding war with someone who had more financial clout and so backed out. Probably a silly decision as I’ll now be spending close to 40k on rent.

3 years - yikes!! Feels like I’m fucked.

In C London and so doesn’t there are any granny annexes, plus I have a child and need to be close to school.

I’m renting and secured a place with a 6 month break clause. This is in an area with very high demand though not London. I viewed properties before Christmas last year, saw 2 I liked and was accepted with the 6 month stipulation on both. I applied for both as I wasn’t sure I would be accepted. I did pay the first 6 months in advance which may have helped. There were a few that I couldn’t view as there was a minimum year duration.
We were looking at 2 bed flats though, it might be harder for a larger place.

Are you aware that there is a short term let button you can click on Rightmove?

Would moving further out maybe help?

The market really is very horrible at the moment, if this new ‘3 years or nothing’ policy is a thing, all you can do is try to throw money at them and pay a lot in advance. Maybe you will get lucky and find a LL who knows they will have to sell in 9 months.

Thanks for correcting me. Are LLs insisting on three years with NO break clause whatsoever?

A friend rented out his London flat for 6 months whilst he worked abroad on a short term contract - his problem was finding someone who only wanted it for 6 months rather than a couple of years.

Just called another agent - very little on his books and LLs won’t consider 6 mth break clause.

Might consider it at 12 mths.

Have you looked on openrent? It's for renting direct from landlords so might find negotiating easier than agency blanket policies.

I went through same in 2019/20. Landlords changed their minds on break clauses almost over night when the rules changed about charging admin fees etc to set up contracts (so now costs landlord more to turnover tenants whereas previously that cost would have been passed to tenant).

I made a rental offer on a property the agent had told us wouldn’t accept a break clause, and there were lots of interested long term renters. We offered a little over asking per month, but then forgot about it as doubted they’d accept.

Offered on another (direct to landlord through open rent) who didn’t want a break clause but didn’t seem to have any other offers so accepted ours.

Property one then came back and accepted us too, because we a) offered more, b) they liked the look of our professions. Very subjective!

anyway we went with property 2, covid hit, so we stayed almost a year before breaking anyway.

not sure what my point is - get an offer in if you can and pay over if you can. You’ll still pay less than you would a short term rental. We looked for those at the same time and was ridiculously expensive.

Thank you all. Went to see 3 flats today. 2 agents were lovely and said to put offers forward and state that I want a break clause along with context. Let’s see. One agent made a good point that a 6 month BC would take us to around Xmas, which is a difficult time to be renting out properties.

Checked Openrent - nothing decent in my area.

I was surprised at how open, honest and genuinely helpful the agents were. Learned a lot about the rental market!

It's really difficult to find a shorter term one now. Years ago we did this and could give two months' notice after six months, so we moved out after ten months after doing a small renovation on the house we bought.

We tried to do this more recently but discovered the rental market was so competitive we weren't even allowed viewings if we weren't prepared to commit to at least a year! So we ended up with a ASHT for a year. As it turned out it took three months to sell our house, another 6+ months to find a house to buy and get to completion (even though we were chain free and our vendor was meant to be(!) it took 4.5 months for conveyancing), then 9 months to get a building company in and do a renovation.

So our tenancy ended up rolling over and we were there 18 months in the end! Not what we wanted and it was really expensive but it was all we could do! The advantage once it went to a rolling tenancy was only having to give a month's notice so that gave us more flexibility.

Thanks for sharing you experience @RidingMyBike . After the initial total bullshit of no 6 mth break clauses, 2 agents are now fighting over me to agree a rental - both with break clauses….
Realistically, I don’t see me completing within 6 mths, but still good to have the option in case something else happens.

That's a nice happy ending. Pleased for you.

Thank you @KievLoverTwo . I could do with a happy ending after an incredibly painful 18 months.