Rented Property

[marion29]

Why do almost all landlords, either in private housing or social(council etc), which I have mostly lived in, stipulate usually 1 months notice to leave? Because when you are to move to another property, once the paperwork is cleared, they expect you to move in within a week or two maximum? I have spoken to someone at Shelter, the Housing Charity recently about this, and he said, "you'll never get it to add up"!!As most people in rented property tend to be on low incomes or benefits, this caused even more financial restraints as well as practical problems.

[Sammy Snake]

I don't know why they do it but a couple of years ago I bought my own house after living in rented accomodation.  I couldn't give my notice to my landlord until I was 100% certain the sale was going ahead i.e until contracts were signed/exchanged.  Once they were, I gave him my months notice.

This then meant that I had the luxury of being able to move at my leisure and basically had about 3 weeks where I had keys to both houses and could get my stuff moved bit by bit when I felt like it rather than having to move out/in on the same day.

I am dreading the time when I move house again and will have other people depending on me moving out on a particular day and I have to move in to my new property on the same day - the thought makes me feel ill!

[mystress]

Hello marion,

A couple of reasons(or more!),
I live in(private) rented accommodation, and the one month notice I have to give is to make sure I do not leave overnight owing rent.It also enables the Landlord to advertise and find a new tenant without loss of rent due to having no Tenant.If the Landlord gives the tenant notice this has to be two months,again to ensure that the tenant has time to find a new placeThese are both legal, under the Assured Shorthold Tenancies Act.

IF the new place requires you move in within a week or two then I am afraid that is just hard luck(if there is some overlap) However I have always found Landlords to be sympathetic,and allow the One Months notice from the old place to expire BEFORE they expect you to move in.If this is not so, then it is (unfortunately) one of the drawbacks of renting!

Knowing many people who own their own property I can assure you that moving from one freehold place to the other is fraught with very many more frustrations etc(being in a chain and such) than renting ever was,or will be.

[matchmade]

I've been a private landlord for seven years and "Mystress" is correct: the law for an assured shorthold tenancy says that you must give the landlord one month's notice, once you pass the six month minimum, and he or she has to give you two month's notice. So as a tenant you already have an advantage. For moving in, the new landlor may "expect" you to move in within a week or two, but that's them playing hardball with you, because they have an empty property losing them money. Of course if someone else is offering to move in sooner, you may need to be flexible, and as Mystress says, landlords can be flexible too but you have to *ask*.

Landlords are also afraid that you will try to keep your options open and continue looking for somewhere, even if you've said you want the flat. I've been stung by that several times: the tenant bascially lies and says they want the place but can't pay a deposit because it's tied up in their old place, so you take it off the market, and then they fail to show up on the appointed day. This means you have to start advertising and interviewing all over again, and are left with an empty property on which you are having to pay the mortgage.