Strung along by landlord - annoyed!

[opalnewt]

We have been searching for a new rental in a very specific area for a long time. There are not many because most people buy. We want to rent before we buy to see if we like living in the village.

We finally found what seemed to be the perfect rental on a pinboard in the village hall. Easily well within budget. We both have good professional jobs, excellent references etc. We got very excited.

We viewed and it was great. We told the landlord we were very keen to rent and could move in on the day he suggested.

The email communication was slow but a response would be received every 3 days or so. It seemed like things were moving nicely and we arranged a day to sign the contracts. This whole process took almost 3 weeks. Then silence for a week with just a short email that said "sorry I rent to my friends instead". FFS.

I know there's no point whining, but it helps. Feeling very annoyed as we got super excited and it seems like the landlord was just stringing us along.

Thank goodness you didn’t get the house- can you imagine having him as a landlord if there were any issues with the house that needed fixing? He sounds very unreliable. Frustrating for you of course, hopefully another house will come up.

That's infuriating but it sounds as if you are better off without him as a landlord.

I feel your pain.

Last year, we drove 2.5 hours to a viewing only to get an agent called 5 minutes before we'd arrived with 'sorry, he's decided to rent it to a friend.'

I think a lot of folk are wary of renting to strangers but tbh I also think it's a mistake mixing business with leisure.

Let the LL know to get in touch if their references don't work out?

I am assuming you didn't pay a holding fee?
Until thats done you don't have the property

Email back and tell him what a nob he is and why