How long between accepting an offer and completion? Asking as a soon to be turfed out tenant

[Bumperlicious]

Landlord has put our flat on the market so we are currently having to keep the place spotless and put up with numerous viewings including one yesterday (Bank holiday FFS) and today (Saturday FFS!).

Anyway, the one today is a second viewing from yesterday - eek! They really like it. We have 2 months notice on the flat, which the landlord has said he won't give until he accepts an offer.

The problem is that we have a plan to move into the house belonging to friends of ours who are relocating for 4 years, sometime in July (don't have an exact date yet). This means if he accept an off now we will have to move out middle of June leaving us homeless for a month. We could find somewhere to stay (MILs, though that is an hour away from work) but will have to put all our stuff into storage, hire a van twice, all costing us lots of money. Plus the fact that we will be living out of a suitcase for a month (complicated by the fact that we have a 2 year old and I am 4 months pg).

So I am just wondering what sort of position we are in for negotiating? If the landlord accepted an offer from these people say today (I have no knowledge as to whether they are in a chain or not - I am inclined to say yes as the flat is on the market for 220k, not many people have that off the bat), how long before they actually complete. Are we going to be turfed out after our notice yet the flat remain empty for a month while they sort everything out.

I am completely clueless in these matters, and I know no-one can predict what will happen but just give me some idea?

Thanks

I would have thought that you'd be fine, it seems to take ages for house sales to go through at the moment as the lenders are going over everything with a fine tooth comb.

Probably 12 weeks minimum, especially if a chain is involved. Plus likelihood that things might fall through anyway as the market is slow.

Does the landlord know about your July date? Might it be worth speaking to them now, they will probably be all too happy to avoid having much of a gap between you moving out and the new people moving in?

My experience is that it takes 3 months on average, can be quicker if everyone is pushing for it, can be slower.

we have just put an offer in on a house and we were told it was going to take 7-8 weeks to compleate( we are pushing for 7 weeks as husband is in the forces and we need to move at the 7 week point or he'll be away, this has been accepted) we are in rented at the moment so not a problem so much for us. hope you find somewhere soon and all goes well. this is hopefully going to be our last move for some time!

You may get some pressure to move out quite quickly after an offer is made if the buyers solicitor pushes for it. They would do this so that they can be absolutely sure that the buyers will get vacant possession, which can be dodgy if a tenant wants to be difficult about moving out.

So if you can say to your landlord that you have a definate place to go in July, and give him some evidence, you may well find that he will go out of his way to help.

We found all this out when buying a house from a woman whose new house was tenanted. Her solicitor wouldn't let her sign anything until the house was empty, because she could have ended up buying a house with sitting, and non-rent paying tenants. It delayed the purchase considerably.

We completed within 6 weeks of our offer being accepted. Sorry, it sounds quite stressful for you.

Thanks for all the advice. The viewing was cancelled - phew. Obviously not that interested, though not out of the woods yet.

We have a 2 month notice period so can't be pressured to move out any sooner than that, but I see the point about not wanting to buy a house with tenants in in case we they refuse to move. If we can get to the middle of May we will be home and dry. Anything before that leaves us in a bit of a sticky situation.

We are in this situation too Bumperliciouszzz - if we can't negotiate to buy from LL we'll be kicked out with 2 months notice too

BTW you can be firm over times and number of viewings you know - you don't have to put up with anything which would affect your 'peaceful enjoyment' of the property.

Is really stressful - I totally empathise and hope your LL is understanding of your situation. We have absolutely nowhere to go and no other rental property available in our area - lots of sleepless nights here

Sorry you are in the same situation Minty. We don't really want to be obstructive about the viewings as if we make life difficult the landlord will just give us notice. It's in our interest to prolong the notice for as long as possible.

He is a very nice landlord though, he said he couldn't prolong things for us when I explained the situation, but he has been exemplary in every other way, and even said he thinks we have kept the place immaculate (well, when I went he said 'well, as immaculate as you can with a toddler' .)