Do I move into rental now or wait??!

windsores

Hi - I'm new to the forum but would really appreciate some advice! I managed to sell my flat in January, but the sale has taken months to go through - mainly due to the owners of the freehold taking ages to supply the all the required information to the buyer's solicitor.

It had looked as if we were getting close to exchange and completion back at the end of April and as I hadn't managed to find anywhere to buy, I signed up for a rental property - which are like gold dust in this area.

Now we are still waiting for the freeholder to supply one more piece of information, so I still have no completion date for the sale. In addition, the buyer's mortgage offer expires at the end of June, and as they are buying the flat to rent out, there is no guarentee that the sale will go through.

From this month, I will be paying a mortgage and rent and just don't know what to do! Should I move into the rental property now and hope that the sale goes through, or wait until the sale is completed, but which means the rental property is empty until then? If the sale does fall through then I would be putting the flat back on the market, so would still then be left with paying a mortgage and rent each month.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? Any advice would be great!

hazyjo

Your solicitor should be able to give you some idea of how long that 'one more piece of information' might take. We were waiting on 'one thing' to be sorted and it slowed us down by just over 3 months!

I'm afraid there are no guarantees when it comes to selling/buying property. Shouldn't have arranged a rental until you'd exchanged as the deal can still fall through until then. I know you say there aren't many, but if you can't afford to pay both, maybe you should have considered a hotel stay, a holiday or stopping with friends or relatives until you could secure a rental. Sorry not to be of more help, but it's a bit of a case of shutting the door after the horse has bolted.

Good luck. Hope you complete by the end of June!

Jx

hazyjo

PS if you leave yours empty for any significant time, don't forget to inform your insurers - or let your LL know if the rental will be empty.

Jx

riva

If I'm not mistaken, your freeholders have a duty to proceed with giving you information in a timely manner. What I've done in the past, having bought a few leasehold flats, is get to know the 'person in charge' on the freeholder's management team, calling up a lot- always very polite and friendly, but I also find that being a bit personal helps- otherwise you're just another polite person. In a nutshell, being very pushy nicely. Let them know the position you're in. Works for me usually- they are all people with families etc so I try to appeal to that and find that things do happen more quickly. Also, I've offered to turn up at their doorstep if it means that things can be done quicker (usually works although I've actually done it as well)- offering to do the legwork for them. Also call the solicitors often- 2-3x/wk. They need chasing up too. Don't be apologetic about this.
Hope this helps.