Renting renewal but looking to buy

AlphaGrills

Hi,

We've been in our current property 16 months and have received a letter from our letting agents upping the rent and mentioning signing a new rental agreement. We are currently looking at houses in the area with the idea of buying so don't really want to be tied down to another 6 months.

There aren't many houses on the market in our area right now so we aren't likely to move in the next few months anyway but if something did come up then we'd be unable to move because of the cost of 6 months of rental. We have no problem with the rent increase but don't really know where we sit.

My view was to just tell the agents that we are looking to buy either later this year or next year so want to remain on a rolling contract and will keep them updated if we find a house but we are a bit worried that if we say we won't sign a new contract that we will then be given our notice and be forced to either buy quickly else be forced to sign 6 months either here or somewhere else to just have a place to live.

I know we could refuse a contract, then be given 2 months notice (I think that's our period), then sit that out and wait for court proceedings or whatever the procedure is, but we really don't want to do things like that and I'm not sure if that would damage our mortgage application.

Thanks for any help

G_M

AlphaGrills wrote: »

Hi,
... have received a letter from our letting agents upping the rent and mentioning signing a new rental agreement.

We are currently looking at houses in the area with the idea of buying so don't really want to be tied down to another 6 months.

....

....don't want to remain on a rolling contract

So what DO you want...??

For your options, see:

Ending/Renewing an AST (what happens when the Fixed Term ends?)(What is a Periodic Tenancy?)(How can a LL remove a tenant?)(How can a tenant end a tenancy?)

AlphaGrills

G_M wrote: »

So what DO you want...??

Sorry, finger troubles. I meant we do want to maintain the rolling contract

BitterAndTwisted

A landlord applying to court for possession will not affect your credit-file.

OF COURSE the agent is pressing you to sign another fixed-term! They need their fee-income to come from somewhere. And that's you.

Any negotiation or communication should be done direct with your landlord. Few sensible landlords would issue a Section 21 Notice just because a tenant would prefer to go onto a statutory periodic tenancy and risk a void between tenancies. A void which you can absolutely guarantee if you were minded to.

jjlandlord

Lettings agents like to play it hard because there is money in it for them if you agree to a new fixed term.
But the fact is that if you refuse and tell them that you're happy to remain on periodic tenancy you likely won't receive any notice. Even if you do the landlord is unlikely to follow through with court proceedings (why evict a paying tenant?)

This really is the big bluff of the lettings (agent) business.

In any case it won't affect your mortgage application.

[Deleted User]

Don't give a reason, just say you wish to remain on a rolling contract. A letting agent would be crazy to evict someone for not signing a new contract and most are sane. The worst case is they threaten to evict you and if that happens (which it won't) then cave and sign the agreement. You can't lose out that way, 'cause if they did evict you'd have to sign a 6 month tenancy elsewhere. Also the purchase process takes many months, if you don't find a place to buy for another ~3 months it'll probably be 6 months before you're ready to move.

AlphaGrills

citricsquid wrote: »

Don't give a reason, just say you wish to remain on a rolling contract. A letting agent would be crazy to evict someone for not signing a new contract and most are sane. The worst case is they threaten to evict you and if that happens (which it won't) then cave and sign the agreement. You can't lose out that way, 'cause if they did evict you'd have to sign a 6 month tenancy elsewhere. Also the purchase process takes many months, if you don't find a place to buy for another ~3 months it'll probably be 6 months before you're ready to move.

The only reason for telling them really was a possibility that we find out if we could buy where we live now.