Renting - moving on

Miiri

Need some advice - I currently rent a property which is managed by an estate agent. While I'm not unhappy with the flat or the agent, I'd like to move on to something a bit nicer but I'm not in a desperate rush to do so. I'm happy to stay with the agents, but I'm afraid if I tell them we'd like to move and look at another one of their properties, they'd be obliged to tell our landlord which could push him into giving us notice.

So - should we be upfront and honest or should we look at other agents and only tell them when we find a new place?

Any thoughts?

Fi

Alleycat

I guess it depends on your agents really. As long as they keep you as tenants to rent out one of their other properties they may be quite amenable. Also, do they have many properties on their books as this would increase your chances of finding something suitable sooner rather than later.

Even if your landlord did decide to evict you,they would have to give you at least 8 weeks/2 months notice to vacate, plus if you hadn't found somewhere you could stay and they would have to go via the courts for possession which could take a good few months, so all in all it could be quite some time before you would have to move out.

If your agents/landlord are reasonable I would probably tell them. We are intending to move next year and will give our agents plenty of notice. Partly to give them time to market the property and find suitable tenants and also so we keep them sweet and ensure a good reference.

kit

You should tell your agent.
If my tenants inform me they are looking for somewhere else I try my best to help them find somewhere. I have yet to work with a landlord that gives tenants notice just because they are looking for somewhere else.