Completion date 2 days after tenant expires

[ciavent90]

Hi All,

Hoping someone can provide some potential solutions... We are in the process of buying a house and ending the tenancy on our current place on 29th July.

We started the house buying process at the beginning of April and a suggested completion date of 17th July has been on the sales memo from the get go.

We're in a chain with our vendors, and the vendors they are buying from too. The vendors at the top have only just now said they can't move before 2nd August which is news to ourselves and our own vendors who wanted to move as early as the first week of July.

We have just given birth to our first child who is only a few weeks old so we were really hoping relaying this to the chain would help and they would work with us to bring the completion date forward considering our circumstance.

We need to be out of rental accom by 28th July at the latest to allow for an end of tenancy clean and inventory to take place on 29th July. We can't however pay a moving company twice to move our stuff out of rental into storage, and then from storage into our new house. We also wouldn't be able to do one of those legs ourselves with a newborn and a dog.

We're really hoping the top of the chain can meet us on a completion of 28th but they aren't budging. Already stressed out thinking about this with a newborn so suggestions hugely welcomed!! TIA!

Have you spoken to your landlord about extending your tenancy for a few days?

It is very risky to give notice before exchange. If this is what you've done, you could ask your landlord to rescind the notice until exchange.

Or do you have a fixed term tenancy that's coming to an end, in which case it will just become a rolling tenancy which will buy you time.

It’s usual to not give notice on your tenancy until you exchange, to avoid being in this situation. Having the overlap of renting and mortgage is rubbish but it’s what happens to most first time buyers? Why did you give notice without having exchanged? Can you retract your notice?

While the top of the chain say they won’t complete before 2 August, until you’ve exchanged you don’t know for sure when completion will be. Anything before you’ve actually exchanged is just speculation. It could be days or weeks after 2 August. Best to give notice once you’ve exchanged.

Seems like your only option is to stay in your current home until everyone in your chain agrees to complete - with or without your LLs blessing.

But I would keep the LL informed about the situation so they are prepared for the fact you may be forced to refuse to move out on the 28th.

You can get removals companies that take your stuff, store it, and deliver later to new place.

Stay with family/friends, Air bnb or cottage for a few days? Or your vendors do. The removal company can keep your belongings if needs be.

I'd message your landlord, be honest, and offer 2 more weeks if he doesn't have tennants coming in straight away. Make it clear that if he says no you'll still move out as agreed so he doesn't feel its blackmail / being difficult.

Good luck!

Current tenants are moving in on 29th unfortunately so can't stay here longer. We had A LOT of issues with current accom and landlords and wanted out asap. The place wasn't suitable for a newborn. I won't go into the myriad of problems but extending wasn't an option unfortunately.

Ah, that makes sense.

Removal firm storing is probably going to be the best bet then…

OP, have you exchanged yet? Until you have then a completion date is only speculative, not binding!

Warn the landlord in writing that your move out may be slightly delayed. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO ASK THEM... but its better to keep them informed.

It's it's only a few days, the removal firm can just keep your stuff in their van. This is pretty standard and what happens with long distance moves or when a sale gets delays etc. I am not certain but I don't think it costs much. If your vendor wants to delay further, you could ask them to cover the storage costs

Thanks all for the suggestions. We found out the new tenants don't move in until 7th Aug so have asked LL if we can store our boxes in the property until moving day around 2nd Aug since it'll be vacant. We'll still have to move out as there would be legal issues signing a new tenancy agreement for that week. But it solves our problem of having to potentially pay twice for removals. Didn't even know there were companies who collect, store and deliver so if the LL says no will look into this :-)

Any decent removals firm, will take stuff into store. Trying to be positive if you plan to go somewhere else for a week, means you could go in on 2nd Aug, give it a good clean, drop off a few essentials you didn't want to go into store etc, then move in a day or so later.

We're looking at potential airbnbs for the few days in between and trying to view it as a mini holiday for the 4 of us. The only logistical / financial nightmare would have been paying a moving company twice. We'll see how things play out and take each day as it comes. There's always a solution somewhere!! Thank you