Are rents open to offers

shinytop

As per title, is renting the same as buying or is the price the price? Never rented before so no idea. I'm not desperate to save money but this is MSE after all. It'll only be for 6 months as it's a stopgap between selling and buying. There are some houses up for rent in the area we're looking at that have been there 2-3 months so maybe a bit less is better than nothing for the LL? Any views welcome.

theartfullodger

Of course. You can offer lower or higher or whatever

Brilley

Probably worth a punt, particularly if a house has been unoccupied for a while. Main problem may be that you only want short term and some landlords may actually want to charge extra for this?
Either way, no harm in trying...

theartfullodger

An AST tenancy can be for 1 week, a month, 3 months etc etc.

But is unpopular with landlords as no S21 for 6 months. Many agents have no idea about the law - they require no training, no qualifications

pramsay13

Most landlords will be happy to discuss but your bargaining power would be cheaper rent elsewhere, wanting to stay longer term etc. so if these don't apply the answer will probably be no.
It might depend how long it has been empty and what interest there is.

shinytop

Yup I realise a 6 month let isn't great for a LL. And, I'll have no references, no job and no income. :eek:

tacpot12

shinytop wrote: »

Yup I realise a 6 month let isn't great for a LL. And, I'll have no references, no job and no income. :eek:

It's not the strongest bargaining position to be in, but if you don't ask, you don't get.

steampowered

Most rentals are for a year or longer.

As you are only looking for a 6 month lease I think you have to be prepared to pay asking to stand much chance.

Unless I suppose 6 months sits your landlord's circumstances nicely in which case you might get a bargain but that sounds unlikely.

buggy_boy

In all my time as a landlord ive only had it once and the guy was a complete chancer and after I repeatedly said no he kept on saying so were agreed 100 quid off the rent.

He then wanted the house wired with cat5 cable and extra aerial sockets in every bedroom.. And wanted me to buy a washing machine for the property.

He then got proper stropy when he found out that I let to someone else and started making threats saying we had a deal etc even though I kept refusing him and there was nothing in writing and they had not even confirmed they wanted the property or started referencing.

Because of that and it may only be me I would never give a discount and would not rent to someone that asked. It depends on how popular the property is, mine are all in highly desirable areas and are of good standard and rent out normally within a week so I guess I dont need to.

You can ask but remember you are up against other potential tenants so you could risk losing the place..

[Deleted User]

I know this is MSE and the idea is to save money etc but I suspect you actually might be a bit more reality based if you put some time into figuring out how you can persuade a LL to rent to you at all with 'no money, no job and no references'. This is going to be the difficult part.

yksi

Go for a private let from Gumtree or Facebook. You are more likely to find someone who'll let to you in the first place. Nobody checked that my employment even existed. A private landlord is also more likely to be flexible on the length of the lease. I would not even mention that you definitely plan to leave in six months, simply tell them you are happy to sign for six months.