Can I have some advice please.. I am a tenant who is about to buy first home.

Nikkinakkinoo2017

Morning all.
We have rented our home for many years now and have always paid 3 months in advance (bad tenant before us). We have had our mortgage offer through yesterday for purchasing our first home and that is all systems go (vendors willing to rent because they haven't found anywhere so could possibly be a fairly quick process). The thing is, we are due to pay another three months rent by the 1st June. Obviously we don't want to give our 4 weeks notice at the end of April as it is highly unlikely to complete in 6 weeks I would imagine but is it ok to ask the landlord (through letting agents) to pay monthly while they find a new tenant? Not sure the best way to go but certainly don't want to pay another three months rent just in case it does go through quickly?
Thank you for any advice that you can give. :j

saajan_12

What does your current tenancy agreement say about
1. Rental periods (i.e. weekly? 4weekly? monthly? quarterly?)
2. Tenancy type – fixed term / contractual periodic? If not, statutory periodic
3. Notice periods (if periodic) / break clause (if within fixed term)
4. Rent payable dates – does this have to be in chunks of 3 months or are you just choosing to do this?

If you are renting monthly, then provided you give the correct notice, you may be able to get rent back even if you pay the 3 month lump sum. In any case, DO NOT GIVE NOTICE UNTIL YOU HAVE EXCHANGED.. weeks could turn into months or the whole thing could fall through, and if you overstay, you may be liable for double rent.

Pixie5740

4 weeks notice? Are you sure about that?

What does your tenancy agreement say about the frequency of rent payments? Does it say you must pay your rent monthly or 3-monthly?

See G_M's guide to Ending & Renewing as AST for more information.

I echo the point above about not serving notice until you have exchanged contracts.

Nikkinakkinoo2017

When we first moved here it was 6 months rent in advance, then 3 months rent..... He changed the contract accordingly. Last year he put a stop to signing new contracts each time we paid and said it was now rolling? In all of our contracts it has stated 4 weeks notice for us and 8 weeks notice them to us. So now we just pay 3 months rent every quarter but don't actually sign a contract for this anymore? We have never had to give notice on a rented property before by the way so pretty clueless and needless to say don't want to put a foot wrong in the process. Note taken about waiting until exchange.
Thank you

elverson

You could explain to the landlord now that you are 'in the process of buying' but as above, don't give your actual notice until you've exchanged.

It sounds like you have a good relationship/rent history with them so hopefully they'll be happy to move to paying monthly for the last couple of months.

If the property is ready to move into then ideally you would set your completion date about a week before the end of your tenancy to minimise overlap of mortgage and rent, but still give you time to move across.