Landlord gave notice - just a sad little rant :(

Lavendyr

OH and I moved into our current rental house 4 months ago and our landlord has just given us notice to leave at the end of the 6-month tenancy. In the beginning the LL verbally expressed his wish that we would stay in the property for at least 2 years, which has been our hope as well until now. We have been good tenants throughout, paid our rent on time each month, taken better care of the house than he did (it was disgusting when we moved in - uncleaned, last night's dinner still stuck to the microwave etc) and have really made the place our own. We had started to think of it as our home and we really loved the house. We even talked about buying it if the landlord decided to sell (which was a real possibility as LL was struggling to afford mortgage repayments). We love this house. We have lovely neighbours and beautiful surroundings. And now we have to move out and leave it all.

And yes, I know the landlord is perfectly within his rights and I am not angry with him, his circumstances have changed and no one can help that. And I know it's a pitfall of renting that you can be made to move at any time and fully accept all of that. I'm just sad about leaving what we had really thought was home, and wanted to vent.

Guy_Montag

So he's not selling it, is he?

Gorgeous_George

It would be 'normal' for your LL to serve notice to quit. It doesn't necessarily mean that he wants you out.

Speak to him.

GG

Lavendyr

Oh no, he certainly wants us out, so he can move back in. He used to live here. His plan was to move out of the country, and leave powers to the letting agency to completely manage all aspects of the property. But his plans changed and he's back in the country and renting elsewhere. It's completely fair that he wants to move back into his own house and I understand that, it's just a shame for us as we had just got the place into relatively nice shape - it was really terrible when we moved in, I would never have believed it if I hadn't seen it - and had really thought this would be a reasonably long-term let for us.

When the landlord had previously mentioned to the letting agents the possibility of selling up (the LA have been remarkably honest and up-front with us), we considered the possibility of buying the house off the landlord - above all he is a creature of convenience and we believed that if he wanted to sell the house, we could have bought it because although we might have to offer a bit lower than he might have got through holding out for the best offer, we are in the house, we would take his furnishings for him so he wouldn't have to dispose of them and we're chain-free. We're considering bringing that up as an option with him just to see what he says.

But never mind if it doesn't work out, I suppose, there's still plenty of accommodation available to let out there.

livalicious

Ah Lavendyr, I really feel you and your partner. We have to move out of our rented accomodation too next week after 3 years of living here, so I can relate to what you're feeling right now. I do hope that you find somewhere else that you feel as comfortable in or that the landlord might possibly consider selling the place over to you. Good luck

smeef

I can really sympathise Lavendyr, my OH and I are moving house on Saturday after only 6 months in a rented house. Its the second time in 6 months we've had to move due to LLs selling up, and whilst they're perfectly within their rights, it is somewhat frustrating.

Hopefully you'll be as lucky as we are and find something equally nice if not better. We're moving round the corner from where we are to an identical house but in a better condition.

Good luck with finding somewhere.

franklee

Sorry to hear this Lavendyr. At least you did everything right and enquired after the landlord's plans. Still worth doing next time as although plans can change at least it will give you the best change of staying longer next time. Also on the plus side it sounds like you have found a good agent so make full use of them in the search for somewhere else.

I was moved on when my last landlord sold. To be fair I knew this was planned, the agent told me before I moved in but the flat was irresistible. I ended up there longer than originally planned and it did take I while to get over leaving, I'll probably never live anywhere quite like it again. But there are plenty of other good places out there and the time of year is in your favour. I like to move in late autumn when other potential tenants are more bothered about Christmas as I find there is more choice.

In my view this having to move is the biggest downside of renting and is a huge pain. I expect it will worsen as more landlords sell as the monthly cash flow gets worse and house prices stop rising. A necessary evil but worth it if house prices do fall which I think they will.

:grouphug:

Lavendyr

Thanks everyone, these forums are so nice. We are trying to view it as a positive opportunity to find a nice house n the same area. Unfortunately we would have preferred a furnished rental and there are very few of those in the area, but we are lucky that we are in a position to afford to buy furniture now (albeit second-hand etc) so we can look at the unfurnished properties available too, which widens the possibilities a lot. And at least we know the area now (which we didn't before) so I'm sure things will be much more straightforward.

In terms of finding somewhere to live, I don't think we'll struggle as the market is saturated with "luxury flats" to let where we are, none of which seem to be shifting, so we do have the luxury of waiting and looking for something that really suits us. We just hope that next time the landlord might agree to a 12-month initial contract as we do not like the idea of furnishing a place fully and then having to move again in 6 months' time.

franklee wrote:

I like to move in late autumn when other potential tenants are more bothered about Christmas as I find there is more choice.

That's very useful to know, we will be moved out by early November so hopefully it will prove to be a good time for us as well.

Thanks again, you lot are great

benb76

If you're looking to settle somewhere then why not buy and give yourself the security of knowing you may not have to move out after only 6 months??

Guy_Montag

benb76 wrote: »

If you're looking to settle somewhere then why not buy and give yourself the security of knowing you may not have to move out after only 6 months??

Your home may be at risk if you do not keep up repayments :rolleyes:

benb76

Guy_Montag wrote: »

Your home may be at risk if you do not keep up repayments :rolleyes:

what a spacktard I must be, I forgot that you don't get chucked out on your @rse if you fail to keep up rental repayments?