Updating post from Reddit.
I'm a tenant (a PhD student) looking to find a place to live in Bristol with two of my friends for the next academic year. All of my intuition tells me that I should find a place months in advance, and we've been searching on all sorts of house viewing websites (rightmove, zoopla, openrent etc) since March. We need a place in August, but almost every post we find is for a tenant needed either immediately or within the next few weeks. All the posts I've replied to asking if a later move in date is suitable all say that the need someone sooner.
I wanted to ask if people here feel that's the norm? It feels wrong to only look for my new place within a month of moving out of my old one, and I'm paranoid that nothing will come for mid-late August and I'll be scrambling to find anywhere suitable.
Many thanks!
It’s desirable. We can’t have properties empty for months awaiting for new tenants.
You get at least a month's notice of a previous tenant leaving and then spend at least a week cleaning, making sure the property is fit for purpose and redecorating, no? Any less than a month and a half sounds suspect.
Tenant gives a months notice but you have no idea what state the property will be in until tenant has actually left. They're often not rentable until new carpets, white goods, full redec, possibly more... most landlords don't advertise when they get notice, only when they know the date they will actually have a decent property available.
There is a lot of press given to bad landlords, but its a relief every time a property is returned in merely a poor state rather than a health hazard.
What if the tenants don't leave when they said they would? What happens if you find a big issue that's going to take ages to fix? Much better to have the property empty and nearly ready to rent before you advertise it and then you want someone in as quickly as possible.
How do you find a big issue when you've been keeping up to date with the maintenance and checking the property periodically? You obviously don't sign the new tenancy until the previous tenants have left, but that doesn't mean you can't advertise.
Surely you'll know that a previous tenancy is coming to an end before then though?
No guarantee they’ll move out on the end date, and if you sign a contract as a landlord you legally must house the tenant from that date - which may be hotels or providing another property until the tenant that was supposed to leave is forced out of the property by the courts a year later.
It’s potentially extremely costly to have a rental agreement signed without the property being empty first.
Ah I see, that makes sense!
It’s also why unless the property is already empty, you’re unlikely to get the contract to sign until the last minute. I’ve signed the rental agreement while picking up the keys before
Fixed terms might be but they automatically move onto rolling if no new agreement is signed. Only tenants and courts can end tenancies, and very few people would give tons of notice to a landlord of their intention to leave at the end of a fixed term.
And how do I know the tenants will actually move out?
You might want to read up on protections the law affords tenants in the UK.
Unless you have rent guarantee with an estate agent, a house sitting empty is a house only taking most landlords money. A Lot of landlords dont own the properties outright, have leans or mortgages against to fund more properties and some find themselves in possession of houses (death etc) that still need paying off.
Or do own and depend on the rent for their own living costs.
If you are going to attend UWE or Bristol, they usually assist PhD's with accommodation. Have you tried them?
My DIL did Air BnB letting and later a sale of the flat with Hopewell and really liked them. I think they do post grad/advanced degree level lets.
Its because most landlords can't be without the rental income from a property for much over 1 month.
We will soon be renting two rooms, and will look for students. As in London, we definitely want that person move in in few weeks/one month and wouldn't wait for person couple of months without getting money for rooms.
There is lost money and risk of person changing mine
If you're looking at specifically student housing, they'll expect to take you for the academic year. Otherwise, its now. Tenant gives notice, landlord advertises and takes as short a time as possible between one tenant leaving and the next arriving. When there is no tenant, landlord pays mortgage, council tax (often inflated), utilities and has no income which is clearly unsustainable.