FTB: How to juggle house purchase with end of tenancy

gingercordial

One reason why the LA may be so pushy is that some of them (at least, the big one I used to rent from) charges the landlord their fee upfront for the whole tenancy period.  So if you sign a 12 month renewal, they will immediately charge the landlord (say) 15% x 12 months rent on day 1, but then nothing for the rest of the year.  Whereas I guess if you are monthly they take their 15% out of each rent payment before passing it on.  That gives them a huge cash flow advantage to the LA if you renew - and so ours told us that periodic simply wasn't an option, and I have no idea if the person who told us that knew they were wrong and lying, or were just parroting what they'd been told by head office.

Just an example of why they might be so adamant that you "can't" roll over.

Mahsroh

Can only reiterate what everyone else has said. We're in the same boat, but i'm also a landlord (soon to be former LL) and the letting agent who we're renting our home through HATE that fact, because I know how the system works! And I can say with a fair degree of certainty that will try and tell you that you MUST sign a new fixed term agreement etc. and be very pushy about it, but just ignore them. Don't agree to anything, don't sign anything, and given them the necessary notice as soon as you exchange (and not before). 

Just a side note on the 2 months notice thing. What a lot of people don't realise is that rental payments are usually paid a month in advance, and mortgage payments a month in arrears so that should reduce your exposure to "double" rental/mortgage payments. 

For example, if you have to give one months notice and your tenancy expires on 30th June, but you exchanged /completed on your new house today, your last rental payment would likely be 1st June, and your first Mortgage payment 1st July (or whatever date each month you requested to your lender) so even though you are effectively owning and renting two separate houses for a whole calendar month, you only have to pay for one in each monthly cycle, if that makes sense (in your case, if 2months is correct, you'll probably have one month duplicated depending on the specific dates when you exchange etc). Worth just checking that specific to your own set of circumstances 

youth_leader

I was worried about this too.  My rent was due on 7th of the month and on 7th January I ignored the renewal, and went onto a monthly contract.  In mid February I heard that my completion date was 11th March - a week later than I'd hoped.  The landlord was very kind and allowed me to give five weeks notice, which allowed me a few days to move out/move in, and clean the rental very thoroughly.  Once the exit inventory is complete and sent to the landlord for approval, you should receive your deposit back.