Moving advice

Imelda

Hi all,

Well, we are progressing with our purhase, hope to exchange next week (if mortgage company gets off its backside :mad:) for completion on 29th October.

However, our landlord has given us our notice and we need to leave our rental flat on 17th October.

So, for 12 days we are homeless. Various friends and family have kindly offered to put us up but I want to plan for other aspects and wondered if anyone could offer advice on costs/ things I have undoubtedly forgotten.

• Removals- originally we were going to do this ourselves as we don't have much furniture and one van should do it. But, rather than move twice we thought we could get the professionals in who could then store our things for the 12 days. Does anyone know how much this will cost and/ or have any recommendations for companies?
• Post- what do we do about this? Can we get our stuff sent to the new house? (checking with vendors of course). Or should we leave our stuff being sent to the old flat and ask the landlord to keep it for us to collect? Neither is ideal, so are there any other options? We could send it to family but then we'll have to change our address twice with everyone- hassle!
• Anything else I have missed? Trying to get us as organised as possible.

Thanks,

Imelda

Pigster_2

Sorry to ask the obvious but if you expect to exchange next week is there no way you can complete on the 17th October?

Doozergirl

You don't actually have to leave your rented property without a court order which will take much longer for the LL to get than the 29th.

As you are moving to your own place and not needing a reference from the LL, you might be better staying where you are until the 29th. Lord knows it will be cheaper for you.

Have you tried to negotiate with your Landlord and is the notice you have been served legal? Do the dates match with the contract dates as a lot of landlords serve the wrong kind of two months notice! You might be able to wangle those extra days.

N79

Imelda wrote: »

Hi all,

Well, we are progressing with our purhase, hope to exchange next week (if mortgage company gets off its backside :mad:) for completion on 29th October.

However, our landlord has given us our notice and we need to leave our rental flat on 17th October.

As indicated in your last thread, notice is not valid and so if you have decided to leave on the 17th, fair enough, but be clear that this is your decision and there is no compulsion for you to go on the 17th.

Post- what do we do about this? Can we get our stuff sent to the new house? (checking with vendors of course). Or should we leave our stuff being sent to the old flat and ask the landlord to keep it for us to collect? Neither is ideal, so are there any other options? We could send it to family but then we'll have to change our address twice with everyone- hassle!

you can get a mail redirection from the royal mail. They will either forward your mail to an address of your choice or you can ask them to hold it at a PO for you to collect.

N79

Doozergirl wrote: »

You don't actually have to leave your rented property without a court order which will take much longer for the LL to get than the 29th.

Actually the OP has a notice to quit, not a S21 notice (as the tenancy is not an AST) so this is not strictly true. A notice to quit does end the tenancy. Only a court can enforce eviction but the tenancy would end.

Have you tried to negotiate with your Landlord and is the notice you have been served legal? Do the dates match with the contract dates as a lot of landlords serve the wrong kind of two months notice! You might be able to wangle those extra days.

Again, this assumes the contract is an AST, which it is not (yet). It is a common law tenancy to the notice is one rental period. Fortunately for the OP, it becomes an AST on the 1st Oct.

hellokitty08

If it is any help I helped a friend through a similar problem reccently. she rented some storage space with Lock N Store not sure how much she paid, but you can rent a van from them for £10 for the day. Might be worth looking in to?

Imelda

Thanks all,

As N79 said, there are issues over the validity of the notice but I guess we're just not the type of people to argue about it . We really do not want to go down the road of court orders etc for the sake of 12 days- we would rather just get out and stay with friends.

The LL is aware that we cannot complete until 29th October (this is to do with the next person in the chain, it's a business and they are moving into their new premises on 1st Nov and want a seamless cross over) and has said we can stay until 31st Oct UNLESS he gets new tenants.

We do not want the uncertainty and so have taken the decision to leave on the 17th October.

I know we're being pathetic, but I really do not want the additional hassle of getting into a legal tussle with the LL .

As for being cheaper, not so sure. Our rent is £550 a week, if we stay we will move ourselves and rent a van costing approx £80. If we leave we can stay with friends/family rent free for 12 nights so unless the removals and storage cost more than £1200 it makes very little difference.

As for the redirection, I guess we can get one to our parents and then another to the new house when we move in? Doesn't help that I have post in 2 names as I never quite got around to changing everything when we married

Wish I could just click my fingers and be in the new house!

Thanks for your help!

penguingirl

The post office also offer a 'keepsafe' service where they will hold it for you (like when they can't deliver a parcel) and then you go and pick it up or they redeliver when it's convenient. Might be a possibility until you get the keys to your new house and can set up a redirect?

N79

Imelda wrote: »

Thanks all,

As N79 said, there are issues over the validity of the notice but I guess we're just not the type of people to argue about it . We really do not want to go down the road of court orders etc for the sake of 12 days- we would rather just get out and stay with friends.

The LL is aware that we cannot complete until 29th October (this is to do with the next person in the chain, it's a business and they are moving into their new premises on 1st Nov and want a seamless cross over) and has said we can stay until 31st Oct UNLESS he gets new tenants.

We do not want the uncertainty and so have taken the decision to leave on the 17th October.

I know we're being pathetic, but I really do not want the additional hassle of getting into a legal tussle with the LL .

As for being cheaper, not so sure. Our rent is £550 a week, if we stay we will move ourselves and rent a van costing approx £80. If we leave we can stay with friends/family rent free for 12 nights so unless the removals and storage cost more than £1200 it makes very little difference.

As for the redirection, I guess we can get one to our parents and then another to the new house when we move in? Doesn't help that I have post in 2 names as I never quite got around to changing everything when we married

Wish I could just click my fingers and be in the new house!

Thanks for your help!

Royal Mail allow up to 4 (I think) names per redirection so you can ask them to redirect mail in both your names. As indicated, they can redirect to a collection ponit rather than an address if you prefer. You can then collect the mail at your leisure (opening hours permitting).