Section 21 - unable to find a rental

[teentoddlermum]

Our landlord has advised he is selling, been renting for 4 years almost and S21 is due imminently. Hes been a good fair landlord and the rent is reasonable for the area - he said it’s under what it should be.

anyway, we cannot find anywhere in our village unless we move town which means move schools ( 2 children ) and we love where we are.

we aren’t in a position to buy yet but maybe next year so there is light at the end of the tunnel.

my husband and I have a good joint income so I know we are lucky in that respect but my god is has hit us like a tonne of bricks, me especially and I’m so sad to be leaving our village.

of course if anything comes up soon then that would be the ideal situation but the thought of moving when 1/ at the moment the rental is so sparse and 2/ the price and conditions of some properties are not nice.

anyone else been in or in this position
I feel it’s consumed me this week

I’ve spoken to all the estate agents, registered and set up right move alerts

thank you for reading

Refuse to give back the property and go to court or find the right LL with cash flow problems? Another thoroughly well thought out set of policies from our Government.🙄

Ok, not cash flow problems as such but more needing the rent for spending money, some older landlords fall into this category, they are "asset rich" - big property with a garden to rent out, but "cash poor" - not working any more and using the rent to supplement their income - that is the sweet spot, as you say a landlord with genuine cash flow problems would be a nightmare - my bad!

I think you’re trying a bit too hard here, why?. The trend is fewer rentals and higher rents, it’s a logical step from increased tax, legislation and resulting risk in the sector.

Is there a website with a list of LLs who just rent out for a bit of spending money somewhere ?

"The trend is fewer rentals and higher rents, "
If you read some of the links I posted the trend is - Available rental up 25%, landlord insolvencies up 28%, and rents falling! I think maybe you are trying too hard to convince yourself it is still a good business?

To clear a few things up, the mortgage we are looking at is a ‘ track record mortgage’ we have no deposit so the lender/mortage advisor said if we come back with a 5k deposit, clear the credit cards, tidy up the credit scores and have 3k in an account labeled solicitor fees we are in a really good chance of other lenders being available to us. So that’s around 10k ish give or take which we can easily save 1200 a month so he said come back around 6-9 months where he will review our road map. Obviously more deposit the better but that’s just an approx road map. Our earnings are good and hubby may be up for a promotion soon so it’s all looking good for the future.
its not just a small geographical area we are looking outside and wether I communte my longest or not I’ll consider but I won’t move my teen as she’s settled. Her bus route covers a wide area so we have options just obviously desperately want to say where we are! Anyway thank you to all that have helped and made good suggestions. My brain hurts 🤣🤯

You view properties and meet landlords and make your own decisions, some clues are - They tend to advertise under "market rent", they tend to be private landlords who don"t use agents, they use online notice boards, real notice boards, local paper, local Facebook groups etc. sometime they advertise on RM and use agents but when you meet them you will be able to suss out the type - younger middle class types are probably clueless on the legislation and up to their necks in debt, older types with red faces are probably what you are looking for unless they turn up to the viewing drunk, then you can rule them out, you have to do some leg-work, talk to people, use initiative, there isn"t an app for everything although PropertyLog is good for following rent price drops in an area.

That’s the opposite of what I’m saying, I’m saying it’s not a good business ..which is why lots of LLs are selling up and not being replaced. Good thing or bad thing? Personal opinion but I really can’t begin to understand how you come up with the logic that this will result in more available rentals and reduced rents.

LOL you’re a Labour supporter! You had me going then, I genuinely thought you believed what you were posting.

" I really can’t begin to understand how you come up with the logic that this will result in more available rentals and reduced rents."

https://thenegotiator.co.uk/news/rental-market/rental-stock-rises-25-despite-renters-rights-fears/

www.msn.com/en-au/money/homeandproperty/annual-rents-fall-for-the-first-time-in-15-years-heres-where-they-are-slipping-the-most/ar-AA1UuosK

Have you read the articles ? It’s just the market paralysed as everyone stays put, similar to what is happening with the job market and Labours legislation. Would you move rentals now or sell your property unless you really had to? Think it through John. Claiming LLs selling up will result in more private rentals is just absurd, it would be like claiming all the pub closures due to tax will result in more pubs and cheaper pints, or the farm tax will result in more farms and cheaper produce, or the education tax will result in more education options and wider accessibility, or the jobs tax will increase the number of jobs and their quality ….well I think you follow.

So you are saying that available rentals are not up 25%?

The referencing agency we use at work only asks the landlord about late rental payments, whether any damage was claimed from the deposit and whether you would rent to this person again, regardless of a Section 21 and if you stay in the property after it expires the landlord should provide a fair reference - it is literally yes/no questions and as an agent ive only felt the need to comment on rent arrears if applicable (eg not historic). Also, your landlord has 6 months from the date of giving you notice to commence legal proceedings so you potentially have another 4 months leeway. The initial legal proceedings cost over £1k, not many landlords want to pay that if they know the tenant is trying to find somewhere.

Be honest and constantly update your landlord so he knows you plan too move and that you are trying your hardest to find somewhere.

Most of the landlords that I work with do have a heart but we need to serve the Section 21 as a formality, it doesn't mean we still won't try to help our tenants by giving flexibility if we can.

No.

what the article actually says is: "Tenants know the reforms are coming and, quite rationally, many are choosing not to move until those protections are firmly in place. When tenants stop moving, homes sit on the market for longer, and available stock builds up, even though the overall number of rental homes hasn’t changed.”

So people just stay in the house they already live in?

I'm sorry you struggle with reading comprehension - the Land Registry figures for 2025 are not relevant at this point in time, because it typically takes 18 months for new build sales to appear in the Land Reg sales data, so any numbers quoted now will be a significant undercount.

There are hardly any rental houses where I live. I advertised a house in December and had 39 people wanting to rent it after viewing. This is a 3 bedroom house with a wood burner and medium garden but only on street parking. How on earth do you sort through that may applicants? Honestly apart from 3 couples the others all seemed suitable. It's very hard to pick between families. I hope you find something soon OP.

I don"t think you fully understand the data being presented.

https://thenegotiator.co.uk/news/land-new-homes/new-build-property-sales-drop-to-lowest-in-over-15-years/

The 39 people already live somewhere though, no one viewing a rental is homeless, and our local areas are usually not representative of the UK wide market, that is why these media articles from property professionals on the front line are important.

Some will own elsewhere
Some will have been living with families
Some will have left a relationship
Some have arrived from abroad

Part of my job is to help people find Rentals and trust me, there are not enough. I am currently looking in one specific area for up to 50 individuals in the next year, there are currently 8 suitable properties
Trust me, there are not enough Rentals and its getting worse

I know people have been telling tenants not to move out for years and let it go through court, but what landlord in a landlord market with few properties is going to be renting to any tenants who do this? Who don’t have clean references from other landlords? It’s getting more and more difficult to find somewhere and landlords in a squeezed market have more power not less.

That advice is only given to people who can't find alternative private rentals and who need to be assisted by the council. Not for everyone who gets served notice by their landlord 🙄

Many councils do not have any properties either and put people up in temporary housing or even hotels miles and miles away. It is not a solution to give that advice is it? Especially not now. If you have family you can stay with and need a clean record and a reference, surely that is going to be better?

One obvious answer then would be less people coming in to the country? Everyone is living somewhere, there are plenty of houses, the articles about falling rental demand always try to say it is because people are "buying" but if you look at the graphs on say Plumplot then falling demand is there for all to see.

https://www.ft.com/content/1372a542-50a4-459b-9698-2eca86a99b8f