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

This is good advice, we’ve said we will be allowing certain dates and times and no evenings as we have a young child so they’ve agreed all this

No and nor did we and didn’t have to in the end a rental
came through in the 11th hour before it got heated . We were so stressed as we had 1 of our children who had to apply for secondary school and no rentals were coming up we were in full on lockdown so the world just stopped.. I will stress that as much as feels it doesn’t the ball really is in your court and that’s what we found out slowly they can not just evict you on may 31st nor will they sell before may 31st so it continues beyond that date .. keep in good communication with your LL and show them you are looking to move asap they will not want to go down the eviction route as that can take a year minimum.. Once we found a new rental our landlord paid our removal costs as a thank you so try and work with them but also think of yourselves

Your landlord is so reasonable to be giving you beyond the date the new legislation comes in. I’m surprised at that! All of these people advising you to sit tight are wrong, yes it’s a pain for the landlord at the time but it’ll follow the tenants around forever

It really won’t , we continued to pay full rent and our landlord gave a letter of recommendation.. Landlords have no gain in muddying the water when they want to sell and we found if playing firm but fair worked out for the best

Glad that’s your experience. If he has to go to court and then onto bailiffs he might feel differently. Especially when he’s given them so long.

Well they haven’t given the so long ?? It’s very early days and the OPs first statement reads as they have been good landlords so I would assume neither sides want a battle

Well if the other option is making herself and her family homeless, anyone would sit tight. Howeverm the OP has made it v clear that she will do everything she can do find a rental and so both she and the LL seem like reasonable people so hopefully it won't come to that.

What? He’s given them a lot longer than he needs to. Foolish tbh if she was to follow the advice on here.

I’ve been given some really good useful advice on here so I’m thankful for that, yes our landlord has given us more than the legal 2 months but we are also a family with children who are now looking for a new house so it works both ways while its worked for both of us we’ve been good tenants and he’s been a good landlord while we pay for his mortgage….he could have given us 2 months and the house may not even have sold by that time and then the house sat empty while he gets no rent and has to cover council tax so while I’m grateful we have longer I’m sure he hasn’t done it out of the kindest of his heart, with that said just because we have 2 months longer doesn’t mean we will find anywhere we want, there’s still a risk of us not finding anything suitable but by April time ish we will have to just take the best possible unless of course anything comes up sooner. I won’t be remaining here past May that’s for sure. I want good referencing and will be keeping in contact with him. Worst case scenario if we are here gone may will be that we have a house lined up while referencing goes through/ waiting on love daw and we are moving that’s the only scenario we may stay slightly longer but hopefully he will understand this.

OK, supply seems to be rising though?

https://mortgagesoup.co.uk/rental-supply-rises-year-on-year-despite-tax-and-regulatory-pressures/

Can he actually sell in two months, many houses sit unsold a lot longer than that now? You are not actually "paying his mortgage" you are paying a "cost", rent is a "cost" in accounting terms whereas a mortgage debt is a "liability", with rent you pay for a service, with a mortgage you service a debt. You might think landlords are exploiting you but they take all the capital loss risk (as he may find out when trying to sell) and insurance risk, plus the risk of being stuck with a mortgage debt plus landlord responsibilities if the tenant doesn"t pay.

@KeepPumping yes houses can sell quick but I doubt he’s given us more notice to be kind I’m sure it’s because he knows it may take longer
than 2 months as he won’t want the house sat empty for any longer than he needs, hence while he is being realistic and giving us longer than the legal 2 months….also he was the one who told my husband ‘ paying his mortgage ‘ so that’s where that comment came from not us…we are on chatty talking terms with him and his words used.
also I’m confused what you mean I may think landlords exploiting me ? Again never said nothing about this? So not sure what relevance your post has, certainly not related to our situation

Is that, he "needs" someone to pay his mortgage, or is it a pretty cocky comment that would be alienating to most tenants and would likely just annoy them enough not to make things easy for him? Why not just tell him it could take 6 months to a year to find the next property because you want to choose carefully and see what he says?

Your post simply said ,

"and he’s been a good landlord while we pay for his mortgage"

with no context, so that is where that came from.

@KeepPumping he just said ‘ thanks for paying mortgage for 4 years but I’ve made no money etc’ like it’s paid the mortgage but he’s not profiting anymore, dont think any malice in it, just probably doesn’t help when we do have a good relationship with him not just a landlord / letting agency we don’t know, we’ve just had good communication with him over the years. We asked if he could hold off for us and it was a firm no, he needs a quick a sale. He said he thinks it will go quick - obviously it may not and I really hope it doesn’t either! Unless we find somewhere else of course but we still need to be out my 31st may unless he hasn’t sold and he lets us stay 😞

@KeepPumpingyep he’s been a good landlord yep we’ve been good tenants and yep we’ve been paying his mortgage…his words
are you ok?! 🤣

Have you considered purchasing a shared ownership property? I was wondering if you may find it easier to get a mortgage now on a share of a property? Our local town has tons of them for sale.

Even if he has sold you wouldn"t need to be out by then (legally I mean, not because you are being kind to him because you have a good relationship with him) I doubt he will sell with you living there and the time to sell after you leave is an unknown, so he might rack up some costs, I would ask for a written reference from him now, to "speed up our move" and just take the time you need to move without discussing it with him any further.

SO is one of the biggest scams out there.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyz8m8jj4mo

We visited this option at the weekend -
looked lovely but the figures for us didn’t quite add up, seemed over priced and the rent/service charge was so expensive I’d feel worried about being trapped….while this could be an option to go straight from here to shared ownership ( these ones were completing by march 31st) so we’d have to have signed there and then for the plot ( we had spoken to the finance team who said we passed affordability) then it was apply for AIP asap and sounded like lots of hoops to jump through ( because of our finances not then) they were very nice ( very pushy too) but I felt
uneasy and uncomfortable
I know the other option is to leave here, rent another property possibly short term and maybe in a position to buy at the end of the year so lots of upheaval but I just didn’t think the option seemed right. I may be wrong - what’s other people’s opinion on shared ownership ? I did read the link -but if it’s that compared to not getting a mortgage anytime soon then i guess that’s why people do them?

You can reference any articles you like but those of us dealing with this on the ground know that in most areas there are not enough Rentals. Its the main challenge we face on a daily basis and my clients all have excellent profiles

shared ownership centres on:
a) are you intending to staircase to 100% ownership so when you sell you have more "control" over who can buy from you?

b) will the housing association allow you to staircase to 100%? Some limit it to 80% max on the basis they do not want to remove property from the "social housing" supply/inventory

c) you have responsibility for all repairs so make sure if buying a second hand property you get a good idea of its condition.

d) if selling as shared ownership, the housing association has final say in who can buy it, as the buyer has to meet the HA's criteria (eg: not be too rich? age? has connections with that geographical area?)

e) depending on the price, SO can save you a modest amount of tax if you time your staircase in appropriate sized increments as you only pay stamp duty on the first tranche and then on any subsequent tranche(s) over 80%. Alternatively, if you expect the property value to rise in the future and expect it will take you a "fair while" to reach 100% ownership, then you can make a "market value" election at first purchase and pay stamp duty on the current value. That way you never pay stamp duty again, even when you go over the 80% threshold.

Your clients must already live somewhere though?

https://www.zoopla.co.uk/discover/property-news/rental-market-report/

which demonstrates:
a) rent price is still rising by at least inflation (not falling)
b) there is regional variation for rent price increases (hardly a surprise)
c) there is seasonality to the rental market (hardly a surprise)
d) 17 days average to find new tenants may be the longest delay since 2019, but is hardly catastrophic to a professional landlord able to manage their cashflow

The poster you quote is reflecting their own experience, it may be regional...?