Extension to notice on rental property

orionmoo

Hi all,

Currently in rental, in the process of buying a property looking to complete on no earlier than 27th Feb (higher up the chain minimum). This date is a bit annoying as the 27th is our notice date for our currently property. We are hoping to exchange contracts on or by 27th Jan which will then allow us to provide the 1 month notice period of our SPT to enable us to leave on 27th Feb.

From previous experience though, agents/landlords want you out of the property at midday (which in my mind is short changing us of half a days rent, as you still pay for that entire last day) but the estate agent of our new property said on completion day it may not be until 3pm or later when we get the keys for the new property.

What we'd like is to say to our agents here's our notice, can we have an extra week on top of it. This would allow us a week to have both properties cleaned and move out properly. How open are landlords to this?

We don't want to ask until we hand our notice in because if it all goes tits up then the landlord knows we wish to move out and could serve notice on us. So just want to gauge opinion of any landlords out there at the moment?

How willing would you be to allow an extra week at the end of the notice period? This is not London, so the property wont be snapped up in 2 days. Surely the extra rent would be nice for the landlord?

Guest101

If you're notice day is the 27th, your last day in the property would be the 26th.

Why not just rent for 1 extra month and have time to move and clean and do it leisurely.

Since the chain starts with u, ud be first to complete if that makes any difference.

Why a month between exchange and completion? - sorry misread ur post.

Well u can negotiate, but strictly speaking if your in the property on 27th feb ( if the dates u have are correct ) u'll be charged double rent.

I think ur best bet is notice to expire match 26th.

Negotiate early surrender once Uve moved.

orionmoo

Guest101 wrote: »

If you're notice day is the 27th, your last day in the property would be the 26th.

Why not just rent for 1 extra month and have time to move and clean and do it leisurely.

Since the chain starts with u, ud be first to complete if that makes any difference.

Why a month between exchange and completion? - sorry misread ur post.

Well u can negotiate, but strictly speaking if your in the property on 27th feb ( if the dates u have are correct ) u'll be charged double rent.

I think ur best bet is notice to expire match 26th.

Negotiate early surrender once Uve moved.

Hi Guest101,

No our month-start date is 28th of the month so our notice date is the 27th.

Renting for an entire month would be a bit tight on the wallet really. You already pay a larger mortgage payment for the first month. It'd be around £1,500 for the first month if we did that which is my net salary all gone, which is why if we could have an extra week it would be very useful. Only about £140 extra.

Are you saying the landlord may say 1 extra whole month, or no extra time at all?

Pixie5740

Notice has to be served at least month (since you pay rent monthly) before the 28th. Since notice has to be served in writing to the address given for the serving of notices how would you plan on getting your notice in for the 27th when you're not planning to exchange by 27th?

As for asking for an extra week, well you can ask but it's totally at your LL's discretion. Contractually landlords deal with rental periods which in your case is months running from the 28th to 27th.

orionmoo

Without having the tenancy agreement to hand I can't check on the address for the notice, but it is a agent-managed property, we don't have any contact with the landlord we only know his name and address. For our previous property we just took a letter to the agents office and handed it in in person.

nicegirl

I don't know the answer but just sympathising. We will be in a similar position later this year, it's going to be a pain getting the timings right!

orionmoo

nicegirl wrote: »

I don't know the answer but just sympathising. We will be in a similar position later this year, it's going to be a pain getting the timings right!

I keep saying to myself at least we have a little more flexibility than those in a huge chain all with properties buying and selling on the same date. But they dont have to clean them all down. Estate agents will find anything they can do to claim money from your deposit in a rental, and the deposit schemes abitration isn't always successful and resolving disputes. In my last place the check in report said the oven was "clean but shows signs of use." The check out report said the oven was "clean but shows signs of use." The agents in contradiction still wanted to charge us £60 for cleaning it (amongst other things)! The DPS still sided with them on "the balance of probabilities". Fail to see how thats a balance of probabilities if the two reports say the same thing and no photos were provided to disprove its cleanliness!

Simply put, we're not falling into that trap again. We've made sure to report all issues by email such as mould and faults so they can't come back to us and try and put fault on us at the end. We've even bought a carpet cleaner in advance! (Rug doctor seemed too pricey by the time you've done two complete houses the cost was similar to just buying a machine outright!)

franklee

If you ask in advance your landlord may be willing to allow a calendar months notice rather than notice to the end of a period. They don't have to but those that don't ask don't get. Canvassing half a dozen landlords here isn't going to tell you what your landlord will or won't allow.

What you should not do is hand in notice and then try to vary it. I suspect that wouldn't go down well as it creates uncertainty for everyone. Your notice should be a clear end to the tenancy and not supplemented with a request to stay another week. If you hand in notice be prepared to act on it and do not do anything to negate the notice by asking to stay on or else you may have to start over again.

If the landlord does agree to anything be sure to get it confirmed in writing.

Unless the tenancy agreement says otherwise you can stay till just before midnight on move out day. You can put the keys through the letting agent's door if it's out of office hours. They can do the checkout inspection the next day. However that's not so good for you as it's better to be present at checkout if possible.

Worst case why not see if removals can store your stuff overnight and stay in a b&b. That way you can do checkout in advance and then move into your new home next day.

I'd suggest you don't overstress this yet, the sale could easily be delayed by a week or three which will suit you better anyway.

G_M

Personally I would always be flexible on date/time a tenant wants to end the tenancy, especially if they are buying, provided

* they've not been bad tenants
* they agree to pay rent pro rata for ny extra time
* they give me good warning ie discuss it in advance rather than last minute by when my plans for renovation or re-letting will already be in place

Agents tend to be less flexible. Indeed, their job is to follow the rules and only 'bend' when instructed by the LL to do so.