Question re renting.

jenny74

Hi.

Our house has been on the market about a week. We had a man come round today (first viwer) who is coming back for a 2nd viewing with his wife on Monday. They are cash buyers and very keen. (He told me that the house ticks all the boxes)

We have not yet seen a house that we really like (except one, but the vendor decided on Friday to rent it out for an inital period of 6 months arrrgh!!)

Anyway, we think that we may rent ourselves, initially for 6 months, to a) give us time to look for a house b) we may get something cheaper if the prices continue to fall (We'd also be cash buyers to the value of our house, possibly a small mortgage) and c) the house I really like may come back onto the market.

Does this sound sensible? I am a bit woried about how we would go about renting somewhere, when in theory a buyer can pull out right up until exchange (can't they?) If we sign a 6 month lease at the time of exchange, then our buyer pulls out, that would leave us with a house on the market and a rented property! How is this normally done??

Your advice would be much appreciated! (I haven't rented in about 16 years).

Thanks in advance.

lynzpower

I had this issue too when I sodl to rent.

Bottom line is dont sign your AST until your exchange is signed!

jenny74

lynzpower wrote: »

I had this issue too when I sodl to rent.

Bottom line is dont sign your AST until your exchange is signed!

Sorry for sounding thick ... But what does AST stand for? :huh:

olly300

Assured shorthold tenancy.

Basically don't sign your tenancy agreement until your exchange is confirmed in writing.

jenny74

Thanks for that, Olly!

What confuses me a bit is, how can I secure a rental property without signing the AST? Would I pay a deposit. Then if the exchange didn't go ahead, loose the deposit? Am I right in assuming that I wouldn't get keys for the rental property until I'd signed the AST?

Thanks for your time.

tbs624

Mean to hit quote rather than thanks

Exchange contracts, making sure that you've got at least a couple of weeks between that date & your completion date on your sale, *then* sign up for a rented property.

miggiwoo

jenny74 wrote: »

Thanks for that, Olly!

What confuses me a bit is, how can I secure a rental property without signing the AST? Would I pay a deposit. Then if the exchange didn't go ahead, loose the deposit? Am I right in assuming that I wouldn't get keys for the rental property until I'd signed the AST?

Thanks for your time.

Hello , we are selling our house right now (just about to exchange this week ?) and 2 weeks ago we found a rented place we like through an agency .We paid a £180 "arrangement fee" which freezes the rented property until you sign for it (after exchanging on your sold house).If it all goes boobs up on the day and we dont sign for the rented place all we lose is £180
(enough to lose but best thing we can do I think) HTH

jenny74

miggiwoo wrote: »

Hello , we are selling our house right now (just about to exchange this week ?) and 2 weeks ago we found a rented place we like through an agency .We paid a £180 "arrangement fee" which freezes the rented property until you sign for it (after exchanging on your sold house).If it all goes boobs up on the day and we dont sign for the rented place all we lose is £180
(enough to lose but best thing we can do I think) HTH

Yes, it does help. Thank you. :-)

Jenny