Moving from your sold house into a rental property

[OldBun58]

We are completing the sale of our house in 4-5 weeks and because we have not found a suitable property to buy, we are having to move into a rental one and keep looking.

How do we secure a rental house? Do we need to exchange contracts first? Will the agents even show us a property if we have not exchanged yet?

It all seems to be very complicated, as without a secured rental we can't stipulate a completion date to exchange contracts. Yet without the exchange of contracts we can't secure the accommodation. There is a shortage of rental properties in our area and they get snapped very quickly. Also, the vast majority of landlords want long-term tenants, but we are hoping to buy a house in less than a year.

How do other sellers go about setting the dates of completion when moving into a rental property?

Any ideas?

You don't need to exchange before you secure a rental property. They are 2 completely different transactions.

As long as you have the rental deposit and income to pay the rent you can secure a rental and move out whenever you wish.

I had my rental for 2 months before my sale completed and was moved in and settled before the sale completed. It's very very difficult to tie the 2 together at exactly the same time. Also moving date was unrushed.

We had to go into a rental house while we were waiting for a new build house to be released ( and built)
we were told not to commit to a rental house until we had exchanged on the house we were selling as if for any reason the sale fell through, we would have to keep paying the mortgage and pay for the rental house.
It was very difficult to find somewhere as decent rental houses got snapped up very quickly ( we have a cat and not many landlords accepted pets)
We didn’t tell them we were not planning on staying long as thought it would put prospective landlords off. We were in the rental around nine months and had to give a month’s notice to leave.

It’s complicated and costly. Personally I wouldn’t do it. Unless you have got an amazing price for your property or it’s a difficult one to sell what is the advantage of you going into a rental?

EAs always like pushing this but I honestly can’t see much advantage to you. Ok sometimes if you are moving to a completely new area and it’s better to be in the location that you want to move to etc.

But otherwise you have double moving costs, the rental that may be for months more than you want and a lot of hassle and expenses.

Can the estate agent you’re selling with bell you find a rental if they do both? You can’t complete on your sale until you have somewhere to go so it’s in their interests to get that all done.

Put your furniture into storage Rent a long term air B and B or become a house sitter for a while ?

Agents will show you rentals so I would start looking now. So you can find a couple of options in time for exchange of contracts.

The people buying our house have their stuff in storage and have been living in an Air BnB since November. We will uncouple our sale from buying our next house if we have to because our house is unusual. We will put stuff in storage and AirBnB if needed. It’s not a cheap option.

Putting stuff into storage is an expensive option. The removals quoted an extra 3k for moving our stuff into storage plus £150 per week of storing. We have a lot of stuff, maybe a triple garage in volume.
So we need to avoid storing and move directly into an empty house. The direct move with packing will cost 3-4K.

>but we are hoping to buy a house in less than a year

Either in the summer or in October, the new Renters’ Rights bill will become law. At that point in time, all existing tenancies of any sort will cease to exist in their current form and they will all become periodic tenancies. It doesn’t matter if the agent makes you sign up for a year - once that happens, all assured shorthold tenancy agreements effectively “dissolve” and you can give two months’ notice under your new periodic tenancy agreement at any point. No lock in periods will be allowed.

In theory, you can move into a rental, give two months notice immediately and move out two months to the day after you move in.

Have a look at The Independent Landlord online who briefs folks on the full details.

This does also mean that tenants who are on a “rolling” contract who could usually give one months notice need to give two though.

It is going to be a major pita for LLs and EAs but brilliant for those who need a short term home to keep chains together.

On the other hand, you are in a very strong position with regard to your buyers. Once you’re stuck in a chain people can come under pressure to lower their price. We’re going to rent when we next move because the rental costs plus double moving costs are nowhere near the amount of money that several people we know ended up lowering their sale price by when they were desperate to make the sale of their property.

Good news then, thank you!

I did this! I moved into a rented apartment 4 weeks before my house completed. I went to view several and made a point that I might need a break clause because I planned to find somewhere to buy in 6 months. I paid a month's deposit and a month's rent up front and I had to give a reference from work. It happened so quickly!

I ended up staying much longer but after the first year I was on a rolling one month at a time contract. As much as I don't miss the apartment I do miss the neighbourhood.

It is expensive but I wasn't in a great place mentally so the apartment gave me a fire break from it all.

that's not true @notgettinganyyounger I am literally having to exchange before I secure a rental property, they wouldn't take any deposit apart from 1 week so I don't know what you mean? so I could still be homeless if because we've missed the exchange deadline thanks to our buyers

I can absolutely assure you that this is true and what I did!

Perhaps you needed finance from your sale? I had no issue renting a property before i exchanged on my sale. There is no law which states that you cannot rent anywhere you desire whilst selling your home. You can go and live on the moon if you have the finance to do it.

I think your landlord is concerned that you will not be able to pay the rent while you still own your home. That is up to the landlord in each case. Mine was happy with my situation.

@notgettinganyyounger your experience is interesting as I've been told what the OP has been told by all the EAs and solicitors in our chain. The people at the top of the chain are selling and moving into a rental and they cannot look for one until exchange which apparently is standard when a sale is involved as a letting agent won't allow it in case the sale falls through. Which makes sense but it seems like a catch 22 or chicken and egg situation. If you can't agree and exchange date without agreeing a completion date but you also can't agree a completion without finding a rental then how the hell do you do it? I've proposed a completion date of 17th March and hoping to exchange next week but that doesn't give them long to find a place. I'm not prepared to complete beyond that though as I've waited since August last year to get to this point. They will have to move into an Airbnb until they find a longer term rental if it isn't enough time.

I'm in this situation, so good thread!
Sold in December. Exchanges have been satisfied. Waiting for solicitor to come back from holiday so that we can start to discuss dates of exchange and completion.
We're moving into a rental and have started the process looking and even been offered application forms. However, I have no date to give and I won't be putting down a deposit until I have exchanged.
We are likely to exchange in the next few weeks and there really isn't a lot out there rental wise. What makes it worse is due to adverse credit and three pets, I'm having to put up a lot more than the average rentee to secure a place. I'm on my own with two kids and haven't been sleeping well because of this.
Someone up thread recommended finding a property and putting a deposit down without exchange, I'm not doing that way too risky and what if it all falls through?
It's a horrible limbo purgatory that I'm currently in. Very stressful!

We completed yesterday and moved into a rental. It was really stressful trying to get the timelines to align but we did trust our buyer so agreed a date for a rental and hoped for the best.

We found very few short term rentals come up but at the same time, when they did they didn't attract the same level of interest. I contacted a lot of air BnBs to see if they'd accept a longer term rental - not many would but worth asking.

It is tough and I got close to just pulling out the sale because I felt like we were being extremely flexible at high cost.

Those saying they cannot be accepted for a rental PRIOR to exchange, are you intending using the funds from your property to rent? Perhaps this is where the issue lies.
I was SSTC and not exchanged, but I showed proof that I had one years rental in my bank. The rental agreement was for one year, I did stay longer until I decided to buy again. (Rolling contract) I completed on my sale 2 months into the rental but that was neither here nor there to anyone as my rental funds covered the year.

They can always exchange and then push back completion. Personally if my buyer had adopted this approach, I'd have pulled out.

How does it work with a mortgage ?

@kirinm I appreciate what you're saying but I'm not their buyer, it's my vendor thats their buyer and our chain has been waiting for months. If my buyers pull out because the people at the top push completion any further then the whole chain falls apart. They've known since August last year that they will be going into a rental so it's not worth losing the whole chain over a couple of weeks in temp accommodation. If they push it any further we will all have to pay extra stamp duty as well. The system is bonkers honestly but it isn't worth going back to square one over.

Kirinm, can I ask how long there was between your exchange and completion?

We did this and arranged the rental once we had exchanged as it's a faster moving market. Most contracts are for at least 6 months and we just made it. It only happened within the timeframe as there was no onward chain for the property we bought. Took a couple of months to find it It's a great house and we only secured it because we were in such a strong position.

It is much harder to rent, pack everything up and put into storage for a few weeks / months than I think most people realise. It was certainly much harder than I was expecting. If the same thing were to happen again, I wouldn't agree to go into a rental.

I think there was about 4 weeks between exchange and completion.