Renting for 6 months inbetween selling and buying panic

[jimmyeatworld]

sold our house, in a chain of 3 which goes ftb - us - downsizes who already have a house ready to go.
Due to vendors solicitors not being on the ball our purchase is going to take another couple of months or so, unavoidable due to land registry delays so we’re looking at a short term let flat this weekend that’s very local to us. I don’t want to lose our buyers, so thinking just complete the sale and move into rented.
I have spoke to my broker who said it’s fine just Halifax will need the new address, he asked them if renting and the credit checks that come with that will affect our mortgage, they said unlikely but possible.
so now I’m worrying it’s going to mess up our offer !! Does anyone know if this is the case? Or done the same thing and it was fine ?
I did ask if we could exchange contracts and have a longer window for completion but was told no the solicitors won’t do that.

@Twiglets1Thank you. Always doubting myself. Gone back and forth a million times this week but ultimately getting the money for the house is what’s going to get us our onward purchase !! So it’s my main priority.

Do you know what I have to do regarding change of address ? Our broker said obviously we have to tell Halifax the new address, but what does this mean and will it affect our current offer ? This is another main worry of mine. Also the credit check for the rental, I know we can’t take out new credit and we don’t plan too, but what does that check mean for our offer ? Do we have to provide new bills and bank statements etc to Halifax ? I’m just so confused

We have rented in between selling a house and buying a house but that was about 20 years ago so it’s hard to remember what we did.

Moving into a rental is a common thing that people do however, so I’m sure the Halifax can cope with it & it won’t affect your current offer. The same is true of the credit check. But maybe phone the Halifax to discuss & get reassurance?

I’ve emailed our broker and hopefully he can clear some questions up for me. I’m just really anxious to sign a tenancy agreement if it can risk our offer. I just don’t understand the change of address thing, I know they need it but is that so they can credit check us again before completion ?

No I really don’t think so.

I think they just need your address for their records.

Thank you. Sorry, I’m such a worrier !

@jimmyeatworld, see this link: https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/private_renting/how_to_rent_from_a_private_landlord_or_letting_agent/credit_checks

Landlords / agents can only do soft searches. Soft searches don't affect your ability to get credit.

Loads of people sell and rent, then buy. I'm sure it won't be an issue for you.

They've waited three months already and there's another three to wait? It's tricky as they're not likely to be able to move any quicker but they will be getting frustrated. That being said, it's a buyer'a market at the moment (here at least) and you might not find a new buyer as easily as they'll find a new house. I'd instruct the estate agent to be honest with your buyer and see what they say. As buyers moving from rental we were in a similar position (except we had initially been told we were chain free then it turned out we weren't, so we were a bit less sympathetic), and I must admit we did pressure our vendor and they did go into a rental in the end.

We did this many years ago. My parents had a house built and it overran. We had to move out of our existing home. The first few weeks we all used the time to go on a holiday and then when we returned we all lived in a hotel for a while.

We used a mortgage broker so I can’t remember if moving into a rental caused more mortgage paperwork, but I cant remember any issues. However seeing as we had the cash in the bank, and our income was unchanged I don’t think it did. People going into short term rental to break chains can’t be that unusual. Maybe they just need the new address for admin/contract reasons.

Our previous house was a high flood risk and our buyer was offering full asking price and super keen. (Mad period post covid when rural houses were all the craze). Didn’t care about the flood history of the house/area as he wanted it for an Airbnb (tourist location when everyone was doing staycations). Obviously we were super keen to offload it, plus we wanted to relocate back to a city, so renting meant we could do that earlier. I was surprised how easy it all was. If our purchase had fallen flat, we’d just have found something else. We were just super relieved to not have another autumn/winter watching rain warnings and river levels in an area we didn’t want to live anymore!

We did it, because we didn’t want to lose our buyers in a slow market. We had a six month let and stored boxes in the garage and a spare room. We had to secure our onward purchase, a new build, so it made sense. If the new house had fallen through, we’d have been in a good position as cash buyers.

It really helps, having the rental allowed us to move in at our convenience. We had to vacate our sold home in a hurry but had no pressure to move in to the new place.

When we did move in to the new place the removal guys came in the morning and packed up our rental but had forgotton to tell us that they wouldn't arrive at the new place until the next morning (over 100 miles away). As the previous owners had left a bed we arrived with the cats the night before the removal people and marked all the doors for where the boxes were supposed to go and security taped off the cat's temporary room.

So we went to see the rental, it’s okay, it will do us for what we need. A gate in the garden to the canal, fields etc, quite lovely actually.
It’s a rolling contract, so we’re not tied in, so if we wanted to leave after 3 months we can, stay for 6 etc.
The house is actually being demolished at some point and the landlord lives in london, think he’s just getting some rent out of it for now!
It’s not even advertised online so seems like it happened for us !

We are in this exact position right now, I can’t eat or sleep how did you cope?
We are in rented with a house sale hanging, our buyers buyer pulled out last week. On exchange and completion day!

I don’t know what to do I can’t take the reselling hell, viewings silly offers etc .

But we are paying rent in one property and a mortgage in the other double bills, water and council tax!

The worst thing to happen!!

I thought it was considered fairly standard to have to rent between selling and buying. Especially for people moving some distance. We are moving next year across the country and will probably be forced to rent and put our stuff in storage. I dread it.