Advice for completion date and how to give rental notice to LL

mickym

Hi,

We are in the process of buying our first home.

Our solicitor has said all checks etc have now been done and all looks ok with the property. They are sending us our 'Home Report' with all the paper work, including contracts, which we have been told we must specify a completion date.

We currently rent, and initially signed a 1 year tenancy agrement, so looks like we only have to give 1 months notice period to the LL.

The money for our rent goes out the 13th of every month.

Does this mean that we would have to give 4 weeks notice from the next payment day, i.e. 13th November, so our completion date is 13th December?

Or can we give notice earlier, and have an earlier completion date?

Luckily our purchased property is only a few doors away!


Also when it comes to leaving the property we have lived in for over 3 years. Whats the best plan of action... is it recommended to ask the LL to come around and find out what we need to sort out before we move?

Or is it a matter of fixing the place up as we see fit to the standard of when we moved in, minus obvious wear on flooring and small marks on woodwork?

nomoneytoday

I would ask for a month between excahnge and completion, and then give the notice at the point of exchange.
(unless you have a very friendly LL)

Oxid8uk

It is always best to agree a date for completion before you exchange contracts, but if it was me I wouldn’t give notice to my LL until the contracts had been exchanged. A lot could happen between now and when you exchange (i.e. the seller could pull out of the sale) and if you give notice before exchange and the sale does fall through then you may find you are having to look for somewhere else to live, especially if your LL has found someone else to occupy the house.

You are probably better having a few weeks overlap so you can do stuff to the new house before you move in, have time to move your stuff, and also time to do any repairs etc to the rented property before handing the keys back to your LL.

G_M

Do NOT give notice until you have Exchanged Contracts - any small thing can cause a last minute delay or even cancellation, leaving you homeless.

initially signed a 1 year tenancy agrement, so looks like we only have to give 1 months notice period to the LL.

You don't say, but I assume the year has expired and you are now periodic?

The money for our rent goes out the 13th of every month.

The date the money goes out is irrelevant. It is the start date of each monthly period that matters. This may or may not be the same. Look at your original tenancy agreement to check when it ended. If it ended on 12th of the month (eg 1 year from 13th July 2010 to 12th July 2011), then yes, your tenancy periods are now 13th to 12th

Does this mean that we would have to give 4 weeks notice from the next payment day, i.e. 13th November, so our completion date is 13th December?

Nearly. It's not '4 weeks' its a month. Not the same. And if your tenancy runs 13th-12th, then you give Notice on the 12th (must be received on 12th, not sent!) and your tenancy ends the following 12th.

You can always give notice earlier (eg 10th, 7th, whatever) but your Notice will still run from 12th to 12th.

Many people have to accept an overlap of rent and mortgage - it is hard to time it exactly. Remember there are other people involved in agreening the Completion date: your sellers, their sellers, not to mention their.....!

When you give notice, ask for the landlord to contact you to arrange a time to do the check-out inspection/agree meter readings etc. And yes, leave the place in the condition in which you found it (less wear and tear).

jjlandlord

G_M wrote: »

You can always give notice earlier (eg 10th, 7th, whatever) but your Notice will still run from 12th to 12th.

Strictly the notice runs from the time it is served.

JimmyTheWig

I agree with Oxid8uk, exchange contracts and then give notice.
As per nomoneytoday, the longer you have between exchange and completion the less "overlap" you will have to pay. I would have thought a few days overlap would be perfect (i.e. not too much to pay out but gives you time to move with little stress) but if you're in a chain you may find more than 2 weeks between exchange and completion is a no-go.

But none of this so far has answered your question as to when your month's notice starts!

G_M

jjlandlord wrote: »

Strictly the notice runs from the time it is served.

Playing with words slightly, but yes your're right. But it does not alter the expiry date of the Notice.

Tenancy period 13th to 12th.
Notice served 8th November.
Notice runs 8th November to 12th December.
Tenancy ends 12th December.

jjlandlord

G_M wrote: »

Playing with words slightly, but yes your're right. But it does not alter the expiry date of the Notice.

I mentioned that so as not to give the impression that there could be a period during which the notice is served but not 'running' and thus perhaps unilaterally withdrawn as 'it has not started yet'.

mickym

Thank you all for the info... i didnt really supply all the facts did I ? apologies.

Right here goes.

We signed an Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement for a 1 year contract back in 2008, we did not sign any extensions to this and presumed it to be just a rolling contract on a per monthly basis.

There doesn't seem to be any detail in our contract for specific notice period we have to give the landlord, but presume as its a standard AST its a simple case of us giving one months notice to the LL?

Looking through our paperwork we signed the contract to start on the 16th of the month (payment comes out of our bank on the 13th to make sure its paid in time for the 16th of every month).

So does that mean that I need to give notice before 16th November, for us to move out on 16th December and no earlier?

If some one could clarify this for me that would be great?

BTW the property that we are moving into is currently empty as the owner has moved onto their new residence. They would like us to move in asap but wouldn't be too adverse to the 16th Dec completion date as we were up front with the seller that we had a month notice to give landlord.

Thanks again for your help.

property.advert

If you can tie it all together then fine but in all seriousness, you might want some overlap, just to ease the move and allow for cleaning etc. in order to protect your deposit.

The worst case scenario is you giving notice and having to move out but not having anywhere to move to !

G_M

mickym wrote: »

..
We signed an Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement for a 1 year contract back in 2008, we did not sign any extensions to this and presumed it to be just a rolling contract on a per monthly basis. correct

There doesn't seem to be any detail in our contract for specific notice period we have to give the landlord, but presume as its a standard AST its a simple case of us giving one months notice to the LL? correct

Looking through our paperwork we signed the contract to start on the 16th of the month (payment comes out of our bank on the 13th to make sure its paid in time for the 16th of every month).

So does that mean that I need to give notice before 16th November, for us to move out on 16th December and no earlier?
No. If it started on 16th, then it ended at midnight on 15th. So give Notice by 15th to end the tenancy the following 15th.

Thanks again for your help.

As above. :T