When to give notice on rented house?

Birdy54

Hi,

We are FTB but in a rented property at the moment. We have had our mortgage application approved and offer issued in the post, due to arrive shortly. 

At what point would it be safe to give notice to our landlord. We aren’t tied in to a fixed tenancy agreement and are on a rolling basis month by month. I am due to pay rent tomorrow to cover the period up to 28 September and ideally want this to be our last rent payment so would need to give notice today/tomorrow - is it safe to do so?

We aren’t in a chain as our vendors are buying a new house which is ready to move in to as soon as possible. 

Thank you 

Kiwistrawb1990

The general advice we were given is not until you've exchanged xx

Sanne

Until you’ve exchanged anything can still go wrong or delayed so I wouldn’t until contracts have been exchanged, which obvious means you’d need to budget for an overlap of mortgage / rent. 

I know at least one couple who’s taken the risk and given notice before - however, I’d not take that risk, we’ve had one last-minute enquiry by my solicitor which could have delayed the whole thing by a few weeks (hadn’t we been lucky that one solicitor in the chain had the required document from the council and passed it on so it didn’t need to be requested). 

Things happen all the time - how far is your solicitor with enquiries etc? That’s more important than the mortgage offer when it comes to timescales. (Again - ours just disappeared on holiday for two weeks without saying a word so not much moved during that time 🤷‍♀️)

grumiofoundation

Birdy54 said:

Hi,

We are FTB but in a rented property at the moment. We have had our mortgage application approved and offer issued in the post, due to arrive shortly. 

At what point would it be safe to give notice to our landlord. We aren’t tied in to a fixed tenancy agreement and are on a rolling basis month by month. I am due to pay rent tomorrow to cover the period up to 28 September and ideally want this to be our last rent payment so would need to give notice today/tomorrow - is it safe to do so?

We aren’t in a chain as our vendors are buying a new house which is ready to move in to as soon as possible. 

Thank you 

No

izoomzoom

We gave notice and used it as a deadline to push the solicitor to exchange. In the end, it was the Wednesday when we exchanged and completed, and we had to be out of the rented on the Saturday.
Our LL was very approachable, and would have allowed us to stay longer if necessary, but it wasn't.

onthemend88

We didn't send our notice until we had completed. We had numerous delays with our new build however, it didn't put us in any kind of predicament where we wouldn't have somewhere to live. We will have to pay an extra months rent but had already factored this in.

MovingForwards

I gave my notice when missives were concluded (exchange of contracts), it happened just as the solicitor was finishing for the evening and completion was started first thing the following morning, keys were available a few hours after opening hours.

When my solicitor confirmed exchange had taken place, I emailed the LA to give notice.

Do not ever hand your notice in until you've exchanged contracts, anything can go wrong, the purchase can fall through and you will be homeless unless your LL agrees you can stay on.

It's also good to have an overlap to allow any tidying of your new home, organising removals and then tidying the old property.

leodis23

Definitely not until you've exchanged - you could ask your solicitor to try and negotiate completing just before your monthly rent is due so you're not paying for 2 properties