what can we do?

weesie81

we currently rent from a letting agency who act for our landlord we have never met.
our lease is due to end on 20th november but we are currently viewing property to buy, so with only 6 weeks on thursday till our lease ends we called this morning to extend for another month and were told that should be fine.

we have just had a call saying the landlord is not happy and has asked us to sign for a minimum of 3 months,what do we do now?
we are in scotland and have 3 small children to consider but i don't want to be tied to the rental incase we find a home we want to buy?
do we have any rights to carry on monthly or will we need to leave by the 20th november?

laughingcow81

I could be completely wrong here but I would have thought that one month isn't long enough to find a place to buy? I'm a FTB and we've been looking for a place for 2 months so far with no luck!

Three months sounds more like it, that way you aren't restricted too much in your timeline.

weesie81

sorry i meant to add we are restricted in our timeline we only have until xmas eve to make and have an offer accepted on a property its the restrictions of the LIFT scheme we are buying with.

we asked the agency today if we could extend on a month to month basis with a view to signing another 6 monthly one in december if we are unsuccessful with buying our own home.

weesie81

letting agency have just rang and we need to leave on november 20th unless we sign for 3 months minimum.

Emmzi

I wouldn't be homeless on the strength of a maybe. I'd rather suck up paying an extra 2 months rent.

laughingcow81

Well then it seems that either you can sign up for three months, so if you find a place to buy you have to pay the rent for the remaining month or so.

Or you can search for a new home, with the aim to leaving by the 20th November.

Or you can search for a new home and find alternative accommodation after the 20th November if you don't manage to, like another rental or living with friends / family etc?

weesie81

have just rang them back and pleaded to their better nature saying that by the 20th december we will know what we are doing for definite and could possibly sign for a further 6 months at that time.
fingers crossed.

laughingcow81

Good luck! I hope it works out.

DVardysShadow

weesie81 wrote: »

letting agency have just rang and we need to leave on november 20th unless we sign for 3 months minimum.

String them along. It may be different is Scotland, but in England, you have to be given 2 months notice, else the tenancy goes rolling monthly. Guessing that your rent day is 20th/month, the earliest they could get you out now is 20th Dec.

A house purchase is one of those things where it may be worth throwing a month's rent away for the long term benefit - if it is not worth it, then I suggest your financial case for buying is not very strong

princeofpounds

What Dvardy said...

Scottish law isn't the same as English law, but in England you would (if you haven't been given notice in a proper Section 21 format already) go onto a rolling tenancy called a statutory periodic tenancy. This is basically a rental-period to rental-period contract on the same terms as your fixed term, except that the LL has to give you 2 months notice to leave and you have to give 1 month.

Even if you have got notice, they will take about 2 months to get a court order to evict you and to get the bailiffs in, maybe even longer.

But 1 month to buy and complete sounds very short!

It may well be it is not worth the stress and you can pay for some extra time, gives you more time for moving and looking etc.