Why are rental properties advertised at the last minute?

GDB2222

I strongly second Mary's point. Move onto a statutory periodic tenancy, which happens automatically if you don't sign a new agreement.

Sorry I misread your first post about the 11 years. 

Finally, you could ask your landlord how much notice he actually requires - as long as it is all agreed in writing, you can agree something different from what is in the current contract.

newsgroupmonkey_

I fear you're going to simply pay double rent for a few weeks.

And I get that financially, for many people this is really tough. I've been there a couple of times including recently when we finally got back into the housing market - we had 2 months left on our contract, so simply had to pay them, something you really don't need when you're trying to find all the fees and moving costs.

As for them taking both your rent and rent from others at the same time, I might be wrong, but I'm sure I've seen that as being illegal. Might be worth searching the forum for others experiences.

On the flipside, they could argue that this just happens to be the same as the reletting fees....

Quite honestly though, if you're serious about a new place and you say to the LA "I know you want this filled in the next 2-3 weeks, but here's my money and I'll move in in 5 weeks (or something) and they're desperate, they might buy it.

I bet if you asked someone like @theartfullodger if he'd rather have a good, well referenced tenant that's likely to stay another 11 years, but means leaving a flat empty for 2 weeks or an unknown tenant who has a shaky income and has previously moved every 6 months, I think he'd probably take your offer.

MaryNB

newsgroupmonkey_ said:

I fear you're going to simply pay double rent for a few weeks.

And I get that financially, for many people this is really tough. I've been there a couple of times including recently when we finally got back into the housing market - we had 2 months left on our contract, so simply had to pay them, something you really don't need when you're trying to find all the fees and moving costs.

As for them taking both your rent and rent from others at the same time, I might be wrong, but I'm sure I've seen that as being illegal. Might be worth searching the forum for others experiences.

On the flipside, they could argue that this just happens to be the same as the reletting fees....

This. When I was renting I always had to pay for an overlap. Places didn't come up for rent until maybe a week or two before the tenancy started. Also demand was so high I had to take whatever I could get. I couldn't be fussy about dates. 

Regarding the early termination fees, I thought the same but the Tenant Fees Act says they can't claim for more than the costs incurred so they'd have to justify it. They could of course just refuse to accept early surrender if the tenant challenged the fee. 

saajan_12

nnb said:

So I've been in the rental market for 11 years but moving out of my current property is becoming a headache.

I have to give 2 months notice and, in the past, there would always be properties advertised for 4-8 weeks time. Now, all I can see is "available now" or - if I'm lucky - in the next 2-3 weeks.

I find it super disconcerting that I have to give loads of notice but wait until the final fortnight to HOPEFULLY find somewhere liveable.

My current agent (actually a good one) told me they would not even advertise my flat until 2-3 weeks before I move out. If the agent knows for 2 months it will be available, why are they only putting it on the market a few weeks before? Wouldn't you want to secure a tenant asap?

This is not so much criticism (although I am confused) but more just asking why this seems to make sense to them and get some advice from you lot who know about it. Really interested to know why this is a thing

Sidenote: this actually started before covid, around summer 2019 (4 weeks maybe) but now is the 2-3 week max but mostly 'available now'.

Focusing on the actual question:
The reason is because the regulations lean towards letting people stay put and hence give no certainty to when tenancies will end and the LL will have vacant possession for the next people. The main scenarios are:

1. At the end of a fixed term, the tenancy just ends without notice if they leave or continues into a periodic if they stay. There's no statutory requirement for notice, and even if the AST has a contractual requirement for notice and the tenants don't, this would be a civil claim for provable losses, so always difficult in proving the rent you 'would have received'. Even if the tenants informally say they'll leave, this isn't notice and hence isn't binding.

2. If LL wants to evict, they serve a notice which gives notice of an intention to go to court, the tenant doesn't actually HAVE to leave until a court gives a possession order and bailiffs arrive. The timing there is very uncertain. Plus, many tenants actually DO leave when a S21 expires, as they misunderstand the notice, but the LL can't rely on that until it happens. Strictly the tenant should give their own notice, but it may be hard to get further rent in lieu of notice, so the LL just ends up agreeing to end early and scrabbling for new tenants. 

3. If the tenant wants to leave, they serve a notice, and if they don't leave at the end then the LL can charge double rent, though they still can't force the tenants out. This scenario gives the most certainty, as the double rent is an incentive to leave on time. If they don't leave but the LL has relied on their notice to sign with new tenants, they have some extra money to compensate the new tenants. 

4. If LL & tenant mutually agree to end, and sign an early surrender, then contractually if the tenant doesn't leave, they would be liable for the LL's losses eg in rehousing new tenants. However its unclear whether this would be actually enforceable to evict the old tenants via court (ie I haven't seen any case law). 

All in, LLs will often wait until a tenant has left before signing with a new tenant (with advertising a week or two before). Imagine if the law gave adequate notice periods, but then gave some certainty at the end of those re when  the tenancy ends.. would help LLs and also good tenants who just want to confirm a new place!