FTBs - How much overlap did you have between tenancy and completion?

betsycat

Unfortunately I think we're going to have a 2+ month overlap. We have to give notice from a period beginning the 5th, and I very much doubt we'll have exchanged in time to give notice by the 5th August. Potential completion dates have been given as 18th and 25th August).

I don't want to just hand in our notice and hope for the best, as we have cats and I want to get them out of the flat before the viewings start – they don't go outside much or go out of the front of the house, and I can see them getting trapped outside or in a room. No cat flap!

Also, we're technically not supposed to have the cats, but letting agent turns a blind eye and feigns ignorance as we're much cleaner/more polite than the previous tenant and rarely bother them for anything. But I think that patience might be stretched if there are cats here for viewings as it raises questions from potential tenants. So 2+ months overlap is the penalty we pay for that, I suppose!

Fosterdog

Ours was six weeks, gave notice two weeks before the end of one rental period so it ended at the the end of the next rental period. Worked out well as we had six weeks to get work done in the new house, decorate, and clean fully before moving in and enough time for us to get the rental fully cleaned after moving out without too much of a rush.

Purplepenguin88

12 days I think. We had quite a long gap between exchange and completion (about a month). We handed in our notice as soon as we exchanged, so the LL had additional time.