When to give notice

hats123

When should we give notice on our rented property? We have bought a house, and survey is done, searches underway etc. Should we wait until exchange? Is it very foolish to give notice before this has happened?

Grimbal

hats123 wrote: »

Should we wait until exchange? Is it very foolish to give notice before this has happened?

In a word, yes

could you build in a long delay between exchange & completion to minimise concurrent rental & mortgage payments? We sold to a couple in rental & let them have a two month gap between these points

Hammyman

Wait until you have a completion date. I would do it so you have a week or two overlap. That way you can take your time moving house instead of having to do it all in a single day. Yes you pay an extra week or two rent but it seriously reduces the stress levels.

hats123

We wanted to have a week or two overlap for moving, so I was thinking if we exchange and give notice at the same time, then complete two weeks later - perfect! However with Christmas getting in the way this might not happen I guess.

Yorkie1

As others have said, DO NOT give notice until you have exchanged.

Assuming you are in England / Wales and no longer in your fixed term tenancy, you must usually give a month's notice to the LL, ending at the end of a rental period. So if your fixed term tenancy ran from e.g. 7th April to 6th October, your rental period runs from 7th of one month to 6th of the next. Therefore, if you give notice on e.g. 15th October, it will expire on 6th December. It is wise to try to time exchange and completion so that you give notice towards the end of a rental period and have fewer weeks' overlap to pay double rent / mortgage.

pollyzanna

nothing is certain until exchange has taken place - even if you have signed and they have signed. The number of times we could have given notice.....

There should be details within your rental agreement that specifies how and where and when to give notice.

KateLiana27

Wait until exchange to give formal notice.

However if you are on good terms with your landlord, it doesn't hurt to discuss your situation and see if he can be more flexible. Ours was.

kiki*_2

Above post is not necessarily true, we gave a months notice half way through a month and they just charged us half rent for the next month.

Yorkie1

kiki* wrote: »

Above post is not necessarily true, we gave a months notice half way through a month and they just charged us half rent for the next month.

The above post is a true account of what you are legally bound to do. However, as you say, the LL may decide to be flexible and let you simply give a month's notice irrespective of rental period dates.

The main thing is to be aware that there is no entitlement simply to give a month's notice irrespective of rental period dates. The full amount must be budgeted for both in timing and financially and, if your LL is flexible, that's an added bonus.

Also, if the LL is appearing to be flexible, best to get the agreement to early release in writing so that you don't get stung for the balance in the deposit release.

kiki*_2

Ah sorry yorkie I misunderstood! Ours was after our tenancy agreement had ended and we were on a months rolling contract.

theartfullodger

Even if you give notice and then completion doesn't happen on the date expected you do not have to leave... Landlord needs a court order to get you out (although technoically as you gave notice tenancy would have ended..). So, give notice on exchange, see if Ll will be flexible, if you are buying you don't really need to worry about reference from LL if you delay a bit.. I Think you are liable to rent in 1-month chunks...

Cheers!