House rental....when to look?

gt568

Hey dudes.....random question...

If I needed to occupy a house to rent on the 15th Dec, when would I need to start the viewing/admin process? Clearly estate agents aren't going to let me sign up for a house now when I won't move in until mid Dec...

Ta.

Edi81

Depends what supply is like where you are looking.

I would say 4-6 weeks as 4weeks is when agents will know what will be available in December.

agrinnall

I'd start looking now, you may well find some properties with a lead time of 2 months where the LL/LA knows that the tenants will be moving out on a particular date. Then as the next few weeks go by you'll probably find more properties becoming available.

gt568

Thanks guys.

joeloke

agrinnall wrote: »

I'd start looking now, you may well find some properties with a lead time of 2 months where the LL/LA knows that the tenants will be moving out on a particular date. Then as the next few weeks go by you'll probably find more properties becoming available.

A lead time of 2 months? That'd be very rare. I think it'll be a waste of time looking now because you'll have to manually sieve through tonnes of ads with a lead time of one or two weeks.

bigmun

Edi81 wrote: »

Depends what supply is like where you are looking.

I would say 4-6 weeks as 4weeks is when agents will know what will be available in December.

Why 4 weeks? Ts don't even need to give notice to leave at the end of the term.

Edi81

Letting agents (at least the ones I've had) have always written about 2 months before the end to enquire what I was doing. Most agents will have a pretty good idea what will be coming up in 4 weeks time.

Doesn't guarantee that a current tenant will inform them but as long as the Op starts making themselves known to agents ey might get word before the ads go up on internet.

stator

Have a look around now for rentals that say "available on X date" there are usually a few and you might be lucky. They'd love to let it in advance and save it standing empty.
But it's unlikely you'll secure an empty property, I had experience previously when I found somewhere I liked and wanted to move in 6 weeks time, they refused and forced me to bring it forward and waste rent. 4 weeks is probably the limit for most agents. Can you afford to overlap the rents by a few weeks?

agrinnall

joeloke wrote: »

A lead time of 2 months? That'd be very rare. I think it'll be a waste of time looking now because you'll have to manually sieve through tonnes of ads with a lead time of one or two weeks.

I'm speaking from my own experience of looking for rental properties, while most were in the 'up to 4 weeks' category there were certainly some with longer lead times. If your experience is different, that's fine, but I wonder if the OP might rather waste a little of his time now and perhaps find the ideal property rather than go with your idea and have to settle for what he can get a week before becoming homeless.

cherryblossomzel

I just recently moved and I think most properties I saw (through agents) had a two month lead time. I'd start looking now.

joeloke

cherryblossomzel wrote: »

I just recently moved and I think most properties I saw (through agents) had a two month lead time. I'd start looking now.

Do you mind sharing where you looked? A 2 month lead time is supposed to be very rare.