Flexible short-term letting/relocation

stugib

Hi,

I'm looking for advice/ideas on short-term accommodation options.

We (me, wife, cat) are relocating from Sussex to Cambridgeshire in October. Our house is on the market but hasn't sold yet. Ideally we'd get a nice short chain and be moved into a new place by the beginning of November, but know from experience this might be more than we can hope for.

We'd like to break the chain to allow us to sell our place and move out while we wait for any purchase of a new house to go through. Best case is that this might only be for a month or two, worst case it could take 4-6 months.

So, we need somewhere to stay temporarily for this amount of time, but most normal letting agreements are for a minimum of 6 months before you can go from month-to-month. I'm prepared to sign up to a minimum of 3 months, but would prefer not to take the risk of paying a mortgage and rent (+2 lots of council tax etc) for several months if it goes through quickly.

So, any ideas of other options?
- Budget is about £500pcm (otherwise we'd just live in a hotel/B&B but that'd work out about £1000pcm). Prepared to pay a small premium for more flexibility in the contract term.
- 1 bedroom is fine but don't want a room in a shared house, and has to allow the cat.

Does anyone know of any letting agents/other form of rental/house sitting/anything that might be an option?

Stuart

Pal

The 6 month period is standard for letting but you can make up any type of contract you like.

Your best bet is to speak to letting agents. They may have properties on their books that they are finding difficult to rent where the landlord might agree to a shorter lease just to get someone in.

Failing that you could try placing an ad in a local paper.