Renting notice period

cm2011

Hi,

We are in the process of buying our first house, and need to give notice on our current rented house. The notice period is 2 months, and we need to give our notice next week if we want to move at the end of April, which we plan to do.

My concern is that we have not yet had our formal written mortgage offer, the survey has come back ok, and everything else is ok, but I am afraid that once we give our notice, if everything falls through, we will be left homeless.

Would this happen?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Alybea

We've got the same problem...
You need to talk to your solicitor and let them know your status (you're paying them £1000 to deal with things like this). Ours said do not hand your notice in until the chain has exchanged. She's negiotiating to give us six weeks between exchange completion and minimal time paying rent and mortgage.
You could be left homeless if your rented house expires and you haven't completed or everything collapses.

BitterAndTwisted

Unless you are on a fixed-term AST you are only obliged to give one month's notice but you need to pay particular attention to the exact dates on your agreement, despite whatever the clauses in your agreement say. Better to pay an extra month's rent than find yourself homeless. Mind you, even if you did give notice and you hadn't exchanged contracts you won't actually be chucked out on the street by your landlord. They can't do that to you without going to court.

Jenniefour

If you have a good relationship with your LL why not let them know and see what arrangement you can come to?

climbgirl

How good is the relationship with the landlord? Could you explain the situation and work something out?

We have a good relationship with ours and she understands that this might be a situation we are in one day. She never has problems renting it and has said she can be flexible regarding notice periods when we eventually find a place to buy.

Worth a shot if you think you have a decent relationship.

G_M

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

Unless you are on a fixed-term AST you are only obliged to give one month's notice

Correct except that if you are on a fixed term AST you do not need to give ANY notice. You can just move out when the fixed period expires.

On a Periodic AST, the one month must align with the rent periods, so if you are due to pay rent in, say 2 weeks from now, and want to give notice now, you'll need to give 6 weeks notice.

As others have said, there is nothing to stop you reaching an alternative agreement with the LL, but if you do, get it confirmed in writing.

Swan_2

please click the Spam button on Seorawal's post folks