Telling Landlord I am moving/exchanging, NOT actually giving notice

youth_leader

My landlord was very reasonable, he knew I'd only rented his cottage whilst house hunting.  I was on a rolling monthly contract and asked if he would agree to five weeks notice,  which he did.  I was moving during lockdown and nervous about it, but agreed to show prospective tenants around.  Luckily the first couple to view offered and were accepted.

Do leave yourself time to clean very thoroughly.  I missed a cobweb and received a huge close up of the 'animal fur/debris' on top of the radiator.  I'd never had open radiators before, it didn't occur to me to vacuum the tops of them.  Using the carpet cleaner nearly killed me.   

jj_43

As a landlord, No.
I wouldn’t want to follow your house buying drama, and I wouldn’t be wasting prospective tenants time by doing viewings, based upon your ifs and maybes. I would deal with things if you provided a notice. If you were still in a fixed term I would accept the notice for end date of the fixed term.

MalMonroe

You say your landlord is reasonable so you could give them the heads up. It's just a matter of courtesy really and I always think that if you are reasonable with others, particularly landlords, then they are in turn reasonable with you. That's been my experience in the past, anyway. (Although I'm aware that sometimes things can go drastically downhill.)

I think jj_43 seems to be quite a stern landlord and wouldn't want to be a tenant of theirs. But if your terms are monthly, I don't really see a problem? Another favourable thing is that the area is sought-after so hopefully no problem for the LL to find new tenants quickly. 

Forewarned is forearmed for your landlord.  

aoleks

You can give notice if you know you will exchange soon. Whether the landlord likes it or not, there’s not much they can do.

even if they decide to evict you, it will probably take at least 1.5 years, giving you enough time to exchange and complete.