Renting privately for the first time

Harlan2

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to live in a rented property with another family member without being a tenant and needing to provide references yourself or is every adult family member considered to be one (and therefore needs to provide references)

Also with regards to moving in general, We have just sold a house for the first time and are not familiar with the process, do we get to decide what date we can moving out?  And how do we best make arrangement so that the keys for the rented property can be available before we leave the house we are selling? 

Comms69

Yes. A tenant can choose to invite anyone they wish to live with them.

You havent sold a house if you do not have a date to move. 

dimbo61

I think that would be regarded as sub letting !
Most landlords would not be happy if they rented out a property to say 2 people and 15 more relatives moved in.
You need to carry on with the sale of your home while also looking for a new place to rent.
You might want to have the keys to the new rental property a week before your sale completes 

Comms69

dimbo61 said:

I think that would be regarded as sub letting !
Most landlords would not be happy if they rented out a property to say 2 people and 15 more relatives moved in.
You need to carry on with the sale of your home while also looking for a new place to rent.
You might want to have the keys to the new rental property a week before your sale completes 

It's not. 

Landlord's state of emotional wellbeing has no correlation to the legal ownership of a lease and the rights afforded to the leaseholder.

greatcrested

Harlan2 said:

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to live in a rented property with another family member without being a tenant and needing to provide references yourself or is every adult family member considered to be one (and therefore needs to provide references)

* if the tenant allows another adult to move in, there is little a landlord can immediately do to provent this. However, most tenancy agreements will have a clause of some kind which prohibits this. What may well happen is that when the initial tenancy period expires (often after 6 months) the landlord might not renew it and might start proceedings to evict both/all occupants.

* as Comms69 says above, the landlord's " emotional wellbeing has no correlation to the legal ownership of a lease" but it does have implications for the LL/tenant relationship, and the LL's potential future (legal) actions

* and alternative is for the tenant toask the LL to the other occupant to be a 'Permiited Occupant' eg someone the LL knows is there but who has no individual legalprotections (eg if the actual tenant were to leave).

* it's generally better to be upfront with LLs rather than try to be evasive and/or confrontational eg tenant:"You can't stop me moving my mate/relative in so sod off."

Also with regards to moving in general, We have just sold a house for the first time and are not familiar with the process, do we get to decide what date we can moving out?  And how do we best make arrangement so that the keys for the rented property can be available before we leave the house we are selling?

The date of Completion is negotiated between the buyer and seller. Neither can impose a date on the other - though either can threaten to withdraw from their sale/purchase if the other does not agree with them!
The only way to be sure the keys are available for the rental on the Completion date of the sale, is to have a signed tenancy agreement before committing to the Completion date. Easier said than done especially at present when most sales are Exchanging/Completing on the same day, so you have no guaranteed date forCompletion till the day itself.....

Harlan2

“Most landlords would not be happy if they rented out a property to say 2 people and 15 more relatives moved in”

There are 2 Not 15 people involved,  I’m not really interested in discussing hypothetical scenarios that won’t exist. 

 I can’t be a tenant as I won’t be able to provide references although we could pay the rent 6 months in advance.  It sounds like me being a “permitted occupant” with no legal rights could be the way forwards.  

One letting agent told us a while ago they wanted to see exchange of contracts first which isn’t a very sensible way to proceed, from our perspective, because having then sold the house we live in,  the property we are interested in moving too could then be let to someone else, and there may not be anything else suitable in the market, until well after there completion date of our own house.  We don’t have any friends or relatives who could accommodate us if there was gap.  Would we be able to offer a holding deposit, say for 1 month in-order avoid that problem?  

I have already told the solicitor that we want at least a 3 week gap between exchange and completion.

Comms69

Harlan2 said:

“Most landlords would not be happy if they rented out a property to say 2 people and 15 more relatives moved in”

There are 2 Not 15 people involved,  I’m not really interested in discussing hypothetical scenarios that won’t exist. 

 I can’t be a tenant as I won’t be able to provide references although we could pay the rent 6 months in advance.  It sounds like me being a “permitted occupant” with no legal rights could be the way forwards.  

One letting agent told us a while ago they wanted to see exchange of contracts first which isn’t a very sensible way to proceed, from our perspective, because having then sold the house we live in,  the property we are interested in moving too could then be let to someone else, and there may not be anything else suitable in the market, until well after there completion date of our own house.  We don’t have any friends or relatives who could accommodate us if there was gap.  Would we be able to offer a holding deposit, say for 1 month in-order avoid that problem?  

I dont understand why the letting agent needs to know that you're selling a house, nor that exchange of contracts has any relevance?