Found the perfect house... 2 months early!

GrammarGirl

My OH and I are looking to move when our current rental contract ends in May. We've started looking on rightmove for new rentals (probably our first mistake, it's way too early!) and have found a place that would be so perfect for us... trouble is, it's available now and we're not!

Obviously I will ring the letting agency and see what they say, but just wanted the opinions of LLs - would you be willing to wait 2 months before a contract started, if the tenants agreed to sign a longer contract overall and paid the deposit up front?

Any opinions appreciated! Thanks.

never_enough

No, not unless you were paying some rent (not necessarily the full amount but that will depend on their finances). However they may have trouble renting it, so it could still be available when you need it anyway. There is a lot of property on the market at the mo, so don't be too upset if you do lose out, something better &/or cheaper will likely come along.

1984ReturnsForReal_2

GrammarGirl wrote: »

would you be willing to wait 2 months before a contract started, if the tenants agreed to sign a longer contract overall and paid the deposit up front?

Any opinions appreciated! Thanks.

If you pay additional months rent I may consider it.

How about speaking to your current letting agent for some leaway?

kunekune

When we did this, we just took the financial pain of paying rent on two houses. THe first LL (private) marketed the the empty house once we'd fully moved out, and we ended up with a 6 week overlap rather than the 2 1/2 months we'd expected. The same will happen when our current purchase goes through. It comes into our costings.

Vampgirl

We had a similar experience - there were 3 interested parties (including ourselves) for the house we were after, so it was a case that whoever could start paying rent the sooner would get it. One needed 2 months and the other needed a month - we decided as the house and location were perfect we were prepared to pay an overlap so we commited to 2 weeks. This would have given us a 6 week overlap but we were pretty sure that our original landlord would agree to 1 month's notice. However when contacted him to ask if he'd be prepared to release us early - he said that we could leave whenever was convenient for us (we still kept a week overlap for cleaning etc...) Sometimes I wish tennants could give landlords references - that guy was a fantastic landlord and it seems a shame that theres no way to let prospective tennants know that! Sometimes its just a case of communicating so its always worth asking - if you don't ask then you don't get ;-)

GrammarGirl

I'm a bit reluctant to have any crossover... I had a terrible experience last summer doing that and it left me seriously out of pocket.

Thanks for all your replies. I'll have to sit down and really think about how much I want the house and speak to the LA.

GrammarGirl

Also, I didn't mention but we live with two other housemates who are wanting to stay until the tenancy ends, so I couldn't arrange to end my contract early as the house would be occupied but with two tenants missing!