Short term rentals?

peterhjohnson

I'm a homeowner looking to become a homeowner in another town. Having sold STC, I need to find somewhere to buy and as this might take some time, I'm looking at the option of a short-term rental. Maybe a flexible 6-9 months.

However, all the rental properties I look at on Rightmove say they want "long term". Is 6-9 months considered "long term". Should I be looking on a different site? Is what I want just not available?

[Deleted User]

peterhjohnson wrote: »

I'm a homeowner looking to become a homeowner in another town. Having sold STC, I need to find somewhere to buy and as this might take some time, I'm looking at the option of a short-term rental. Maybe a flexible 6-9 months.

However, all the rental properties I look at on Rightmove say they want "long term". Is 6-9 months considered "long term". Should I be looking on a different site? Is what I want just not available?

In England & Wales “long term” is 6 months and over. I know!!!

OldMusicGuy

Yes, ignore that and ask about the properties you are interested in. Most will accept a minimum 6 month rental period. Some won't, but they are the exception in our experience. We only had one that was pushing for a 12 month minimum period.

We are just about to move into a rental property as we have just sold and are waiting for our new house to be built.

AdrianC

Six months is the minimum period before a landlord can even begin to seek possession legally. There's nothing to stop an AST being shorter, but there's nothing the landlord can do to end it before that time.

Shorter rentals are out there - but they're rare. Landlords simply don't generally need the hassle and expense of finding and vetting tenants for a shorter period.

At this time of year, though, you may find that some holiday cottages would consider a fixed-term winter tenant - but then you've got the opposite problem, that it isn't extendable past Spring if you need to.

peterhjohnson

OldMusicGuy wrote: »

Yes, ignore that and ask about the properties you are interested in. Most will accept a minimum 6 month rental period. Some won't, but they are the exception in our experience. We only had one that was pushing for a 12 month minimum period.

We are just about to move into a rental property as we have just sold and are waiting for our new house to be built.

Did you tell your landlord your likely timescales or is s/he assuming you'll be there forever?:)

pinkteapot

We sold in December and moved to a rental. We’re nearinf completion on buying a place.

The shortest tenancy you can have is 6 months (unless you AirBnB it or something). Some landlords will want a tenant who’ll sign an initial 12-month tenancy rather than 6.

We didn’t tell letting agents we were planning to buy. Just said we were relocating to the town.

We signed a 12-month though we would have preferred 6 because it turned out we were moving to a town with very few rentals available so there was competition for them!

12 months isn’t disastrous to be honest. With 6 months you’d need to find a house to buy within a month or two and even then the purchase process could take you over six months anyway.

Ads will say “long term tenant” please because naturally landlords don’t want gaps and to have to re-advertise. Nothing to stop you going for those as you’ll only be committed to 6 or 12 months.

Morbier

I'm a 'long term' tenant, but the initial AST was for 6 months; now it's just continuing on a month-by-month basis until either a) the LL gives me notice or b) I give the LL notice. I rented one property for 15 years, another for 8 - all starting with the usual 6 months AST.

The term 'long term' used in adverts on Rightmove etc means that the property is available long term, not that the statutory length of the tenancy must be long term.

So, if you took the usual 6 months AST, after 5 months you could give the required one month's notice. Or you could stay longer, but would still have to give one month's notice.

gwynlas

Offerring to pay six months up front can be agreeable to many landlords who are happy to receive lump sum.