When to give notice on rented house?

ambioni

Probably an obvious question so forgive me: I am renting right now and buying a house. Completion is scheduled for 26th June, exchange has not happened yet. I need to give 1 month's notice on my current place and obviously don't want to be paying mortgage and rent simultaneously.....when would be a good time to give notice? After exchange? Obviously I don't want to end up homeless either but am thinking that after exchange I should be ok and seller will not pull out

G_M

ambioni wrote: »

Completion is scheduled for 26th June, exchange has not happened yet.

No. It is not.

Completion is not 'scheduled' until the contracts are exchanged. You mean you are hoping to Complete on that date.

Since it is completely unguaranteed, and very likely to change, do not give notice until you have exchanged.

It can be helpful sometimes to discuss your plans informally with your landlord in advance- he may then be more willing to allow you to give a shorter notice period once you Exchange, but it depends on the LL.

LandyAndy

Don't give notice until after you exchange unless you like a gamble.


Paying a few weeks rent and mortgage simultaneously is a pain, I did it for a three week period a few years ago, but it did mean that I had an empty house to decorate before moving in while still living in the rental. Admittedly they were only 75 metres apart but it's amazing how much decorating you can get done when there are no possessions in the way.

Rambosmum

After exchange, as exchange may never happen. You can set completion to be say 2 weeks after exchange, to tie in with moving out but I would certainly advise that you have at least a few days overlap in case you can't get the keys, the money goes missing (which I read about on another thread in here), or, like when I moved in to my first home, you find a gas leak and need somewhere else to sleep!

Remember that notice on your house is rental period, not one month (e.g if you pay rent on 1st of the month you need to give notice on the 31st, you can't give notice on 15th to move on the 14th next month). Unless your landlord agrees otherwise.

ellie27

We are renting too and plan to give notice as soon as we have signed missives for our purchase. We have a proposed date of entry of mid-June.

stator

After exchange. Unless the house you are buying is rented out, in which case don't give notice until after exchange and after the tenants have left and you have confirmed it is vacant. Or if there is some other factor that you think might cause problems even after exchange, eg the home owner is moving into a care home or seriously ill or similar.

audigex

I'd echo the above, but add that if you can afford it, a week's overlap can be very helpful for reducing stress.

If nothing else I recommend leaving a few days leeway, it's not unheard of for delays of a couple of days to occur around completion.

sparks11

Do you have a good relationship with your landlord? If so, mention to them what your plans are. We're in exactly the same situation, we told ours that we would be moving on soon but didn't want to officially give notice until after exchange. Then we sat with our solicitor and worked out for a proposed completion of a particular day, when that would mean we were likely to have to pay our first mortgage payment so we could hand in notice on the rental accordingly. Don't forget you're likely to get your deposit back around that time too

ambioni

Thanks for all the comments here- much appreciated!