How long does it take to rent a house?

[strawberrycornetto]

Was supposed to exchange yesterday and there is a possibility our purchase is falling through. DH wants to go ahead with our sale and rent in the village we are moving to. It is a small village but there are a couple of houses available at the right price.

If we did that, how long would it take to organise a rental? Can you do it in 2 weeks?

Am very stressed.

I haven't rented in years, but I'm sure I've sorted it out in two weeks.

It's just a case of landlord getting the references and credit checks back quickly.

Rental agreements and references can be done pretty quickly (within days IME) - will purely depend on whether they are still tenanted or need work doing before letting again. Expect a LL would be pleased to have you in asap if they are currently empty.

Thanks. Really hope it doesn't come to that because I love the house we are buying . At least we shouldn't end up being homeless though!! Why is moving such a miserable process?

We had this issue when we sold our last house and had to rent somewhere on short notice. A couple of points that may help you

1. A removal company will most likely be able to take your stuff out on moving day and store it for a week or so in case the dates don't work out for you. This cost us £94 for storage for 3000 cubic feet of stuff for a week, and then the removal company brought it to our rental house as usual

1. If there is a delay in getting the financial references checked, you might be able to speed things up by offering to pay 6 months rent up front. Amazing how this speeds things up!

I have rented for 25 years from flats to big houses and I would say it takes up to a month. Especilly if there an existing tenant in it and the owner has to remove furnitire, give it a through clean, repair, etc.

Two weeks really would be the absolute minimum time required from seeing a place to actually moving in.

Sounds like it would be tight but not possible.

Onlyaphase, the storage idea is interesting. We could possible cope with a gap between moving out and moving into the new place, which would buy us a little more time. I will check that out.

Just praying that we exchange on Monday so we don't have to get into this.