Can we move into a rental to secure our sale of property

[jimmyeatworld]

Selling our house, well mine, and purchasing another together with a mortgage. The sale is ready but purchase is not and won’t be for ages, at least another 2 months, so to secure our buyers and not have to find new ones if they get pissed off with the delays I’ve asked our agent to find us a short term rental, which she has done, and we’re going to view it this weekend.

Has anyone else done this ? My house has no mortgage on it so we won’t be paying mortgage and rent, just rent on the rental. I’m just so so stressed out with this all and if I can find a way to take a massive chunk of stress away I think this is the right thing to do.

My parents did this twice when we were kids - lived in rentals for 6mths each time whilst stuff got sorted

def possible if you can find a short term let, but that might be tricky, depends where you live. Lots of houses in student areas turning over at the moment which might do a short term let for you.

you could also look at renting a static caravan by the month on a holiday park. my friend did that while renovating when her house became impossible to live in. The kids had a blast riding their bikes around and using the pool facilities 😂

The main issue is usually finding somewhere to rent whilst the purchase completes as the rental markets in lots of places can be quite competitive and landlords mostly prefer people who are going to stay longer than a couple of months. So if you've found somewhere then it is possible.

You will need to take account of the extra cost of moving twice and storage of any furniture/ belongings that won't come with you to the rental property.

I think minimum rents now are 6 months- I almost had do something similar. Holiday lets will be quite expensive heading into the summer.

We kind of did similar, we moved out and into our caravan for 3 months while we waited for our house purchase to be ready

I took an Airbnb last time I sold

Selling our house, well mine, and purchasing another together with a mortgage. The sale is ready but purchase is not and won’t be for ages, at least another 2 months, so to secure our buyers and not have to find new ones if they get pissed off with the delays I’ve asked our agent to find us a short term rental, which she has done, and we’re going to view it this weekend.

There's a lot of "we" in this when it's you that own the house and have the financial risk of being left in rental longer term [with the additional cost of it if you are mortgage free] if the purchase falls through either because the sellers change their mind or your partner pulls out?

Does your partner have a house or do they live with you rent free? Who is bearing the cost of the rental and whose name is on the tenancy?

You could just move to exchange and create some certainty for your buyers? Exchange now with completion in 3 months or a bit longer for any contingency? They might have a specific period in mind if they are extending a rental or have a different milestone like a new baby?

It’s difficult to get a short term let, most are 6 months.
Are you flexible about where you live (I.e do you WFH/have kids in school or could you go anywhere?)
If it’s just two of you and you wfh you could consider house/pet sitting and do air bnb in between, assuming you are putting belongings in storage.

Another who rented an airbnb for the same reason as OP.

So we’ve found a short term let, well the agent has. It’s £700pcm. No chance of my husband changing his mind on the purchase so not worried about that !

I was thinking if we exchange contracts asap then they can’t pull out can they ??

nelly571 Reported

Already looked for air bnbs, there isn’t any sadly. Theres a couple of holiday lets but they haven’t got back to me

Hi, can we do this ? Exchange now and complete on a couple of months/when our onwards purchase is ready ?

Yes - you'll have to commit to an actual moving date when you exchange though and that will be legally binding or you'll have to cough up something like 20% to break the contract.

Ideally, you would also exchange with the people you are buying from at the same time and de risk it, but you can't do that unless everything is done and dusted and the only thing holding them up is a preferred moving date.

Our vendors already have a home they brought last year, they have also booked their removals for 19th July and will be moving regardless, does that change things ?

Another thing I’m worrying about is credit checks for a rental affecting our mortgage offer. I just don’t know what to do for the best and it’s really stressing me out now

Shouldn't have any impact .

By our vendors do you mean the people buying your house, or the folk you are buying from. If the latter, why is it a 2 month lag? Is the delay on your side with your solicitors?

If that's the case I would have a conversation about the earliest date you could safely exchange [surveys/land searches etc]. But if the chain is otherwise locked down and the bottom end [your buyers] and the top[selling to you and chain free] are ready to go, you could influence them to push your case along and get you off the desk so to speak.

It is peak season so do try to be patient. There's a reason this is so stressful. The land registry can't be hurried for example. You can offer to go in and pick up docs to sign in person though. I found a lot of delays were vast quantities of paperwork being parcelled up and sent to me.

If your vendors are moving out on July 19th, why can't you just move then? It's only one month away.

Yes when I say vendors I mean our sellers.
So the delay is to do with the title deed, long story but it’s unavoidable. It’s going to be expedited but we’re still looking at at least 30 days and that’s before even the searches are started on our purchase. So it’s going to be 2-3 months until ready for completion. I’m ready to pull my hair out because it could’ve been avoided but that’s another story.

I think it’s best to do the rental because we can’t guarantee a moving date

Hi all, just a couple of more questions if that’s okay.

When should I exchange contracts with my buyers ? We want to move out of here on 21st July and into the rental, when should we sign the tenancy agreement ?

Also, will £210.500 in my normal bank account earn some decent interest ?

I can't help you with dates for anything, but I would talk to your bank about where to keep the money. I opened one or 2 new accounts when I had to store my money, upon the advice of the bank, in order to gain max interest. Plus it is not secure leaving a lump sum in your current account.

Yes I did this. In a difficult market I didn’t want to lose my buyer.

Thank you and yes I will call them.
Can I ask if you go for a high interest account do they lock it so you can’t withdraw for x amount of time ?