Unsure about when to give rental notice

beckstrous · 1 March 2006 at 2:16PM

Could anyone please help?

My boyfriend and I had an offer accepted on a house about two weeks ago. This will be our first purchase and we are renting at the moment with a 2-month notice period. We are keen to make sure we're not paying for rent and mortgage at the same time, if possible, although we would like to have a week's overlap i.e. rental contract ending one week alter. That gives us a week to move (luckily the new house is not that far from where we rent!).

The vendors are buying an empty house and the EA says they will move into rented accomodation if that doesn't go quickly enough. Our solicitor has had the papers from their solicitor and they have asked to move around the Easter holidays (the date mentioned was April 13th).

That date is fine for us but we haven't seen the survey yet so obviously don't want to hand in our notice until we have. We have paid for it and the cheque has been cashed so I presume it will be soon (I understand that it has been arranged, though I am surprised we have not been told the date).

The solicitor said to be wary of people's promises to move into rented accomodation to speed things along, and we don't want to end up stuck. But we don't want to end up overpaying rent either as we simply cannot afford to!

Has anyone got any advice as to how we should proceed? I reckon we should be handing our notice in soon but I am a bit worried about being homeless if they go back on their word (to move into rented accomodation).

Thanks
Beck

PS: We have not had the mortgage offer yet either although the broker said there will be no problem with us being accepted (we have quite a large deposit and decent salaries)

exil · 1 March 2006 at 2:34PM

Until you have exchanged contracts, you shouldn't do anything IMO. Unless you're willing to do what I did once, hand in notice now, and if things don't go according to plan, move everything into store, move into B and B. Bit of a risk, since you have an extra removal bill (maybe not too bad if you're doing a DIY move) and maybe 300 a week for the B and B (though you won't have to pay council tax, bills etc).

With a 2 month notice you're not going to be able to move out until beginning of May anyway.

How much is the rent for yr current house and the mortgage for the new one?

Doozergirl · 1 March 2006 at 2:40PM

It's hard to time things to coincide. If you push to complete quickly because you are desperate to get in to your new home, you are going to run the risk of either paying rent for too long, or ending up homeless.

To be sure of timing things correctly, you could set completion day at three or four weeks from exchange of contracts. If you give notice as soon as your solicitor confirms you've exchanged you will know exactly when you're moving and exactly which day to give as notice with exactly the right amount of time to move at leisure.

Alleycat · 1 March 2006 at 2:43PM

You could maybe approach the letting agent and ask if there is any possibility of alllowing you just one month's notice. You would be forewarning them that you will be soon to move out, so they may be receptive.

However, if you still need to give two months notice, you can as far as I am aware, rescind this notice at any point during the two months. Therefore, if you suddenly find yourself having to back out of the purchase or the previous owners don't move out in time, you would be safe in your rented property. You may find however that your Landlord isn't too happy and starts eviction proceedings. It would take them more than two months to get you out anyway, but just in case you did not have anywhere lined up, you should be ready.

Good luck with the purchase and I hope it all goes according to plan.

Doozergirl · 1 March 2006 at 2:43PM

Didn't notice the bit about two-month notice period. Are you sure this isn't the notice the landlord has to give you? I thought that normally you can give one month, but the landlord has to give two?

simon_lse · 1 March 2006 at 2:45PM

We are in exactly that situation, expecting to complete on 7 April so handed our 2 month notice in on the 15 Feb. That way we have a week to move and sort out the rented house to ensure we get all our deposit back. The people we are buying off are purchasing basically an empty house so hopefully there should be no problems. Due to exchange at the start of next week. Luckily all surveys and things were done before we had to hand our notice in so the risk of being left out on the street was reduced. We always said that we would just put our stuff into storage for as many weeks as required, it's not as expensive as I thought it would be when I looked into the possibility.

We have found out that you just need to make sure that all the solicitors know that you have to be out of your rented house on a certain date. Then just keep checking regularly to make sure they are still on target to make that date as some have a tendancy to be quite slow (especially considering how much they get paid)

claz · 1 March 2006 at 2:55PM

why don't you get in contact with your landlord and explain the situation

we did this to our landlord and he was really nice as we had the vendor from hell, wanted to complete by 15th Feb
completed on 18th lease expired 20th

however, our landlord said that it was fine whatever happened as he wouldn't see us go homeless, you may be able to negotiate with him about saying having an extra 2 weeks

what i would say is don't hand your notice in until you have got all the searches etc back stress with your solicitor the importance of these coming through quickly

also you don't have to move asap you can move at a later date when your lease expires if that is okay with everyone else in the chain

Pal · 1 March 2006 at 3:02PM

We are also in exactly the same position - offer in on a new house, no chains at either our end or the vendors, two calender month notice period on our existing rented house. Our plan is to hand our notice in when we exchange and then arrange completion a month or so later so that we have a one month handover period.

Although this means we pay an extra month's rent, it does mean we can move when we like during that month, and spend a few weekends decorating the new place before we move the furniture in. It may be costly in terms of the extra rent and the mortgage for a month, but it is likely to be cheaper than moving to a B&B and storage for a month, and far less hassle.

It should also make the move a lot less stressful.

beckstrous · 1 March 2006 at 3:51PM

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Yes, it is a two-month notice period and pretty much everyone I have spoken to (friends, family etc) thinks this is really long - even the solicitor said so!

I have got in touch with the landlord (via the letting agency) as suggested. The rent we pay is £775pcm and the mortgage is going to be slightly more than this. I am a bit confused about what I am supposed to be doing at the moment - the estate agent knows about our notice period and says that he will make sure that the dates are easy for everyone, but our solicitor said the vendors want to move mid-April, which would mean handing our notice in now. I guess I will have to see what the letting agency says!

PS: Simon, we are in the same situation as you - the vendors are purchasing an empty house. They have said all along that they will rent or move in with friends if there is a problem at their end, but our solicitor told us not to take their word for it.

mummytofour · 1 March 2006 at 5:57PM

Dont say a word until you have exchanged, as Im sure everybody has heard from me we are something like week 17 into the sale of this place, due to exchange friday and hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm we shall see.

chem14346777 · 1 March 2006 at 6:23PM

we handed in our notice and got stung -- ended up basically homeless (see my new thread in this forum) we luckily managed to get something sorted very quickly, but only because the new tennants for our flat wern't moving in straight away, giving us an extra week, but this was VERY stressful and I wouldn't wish it upon anybody. given the choice, next time I will definately be paying the extra rent.

only hand in your notice early if you have some kind of backup plan sorted. If theres one thing I've learned its don't believe the seller and prepare for the worst.

Though I genuinely hope that everything goes smoothly for you!

Jim.

Unsure about when to give rental notice

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