Lease Expiring, sale agreed - Options?

Vivienne123

Hi there

In a bit of a sticky situation, coming to the end of a fixed term lease on a rented house and have gone sale agreed on another property but I think I can reasonably expect them to overlap so am unsure what my options are?

We have asked the LL's to extend the lease to allow time for the sale to go through and to try to give them a firm moving out date but they refused and have given us a closer vacation date - obviously we don't want to move until we are moving into our new property so can we stay in the house under Part 4 Tenancy? It's all a bit stressful, I understand that the LL's need some kind of firm date to allow them to plan and we have allowed 8 weeks for the sale to go through but unless we can stay in the house until our new house is ready, it's moving with 2 smallies into temporary accommodation which is less than ideal. Any advice most welcome!

Thanks

Vivienne

D3PO

you can move to part 4 but will have to give the landlord the associated notice period then in terms of tenure. Realistically you can never garantee a closing date even on the day eerythign should be sorted somethign could crop up so id be resigned to there being overlap.

Id stay put waith till your sale is completed then hand in the appropriate notice and move out based on that notice.

djimi

Once you have been in a tenancy for more than 6 month (either on a fixed term lease or otherwise) you can stay for up to 4 years even if you do not sign another fixed term beyond the end of the first lease, unless the landlord needs to trigger theclauses outlined in the part 4 tenancy that allow the landlord to break a part 4 tenancy (such as if they want to sell the property, if the need to renovate, if they need it for themselves or a family member etc). They might not like you staying beyond the year without signing a further fixed term, but in reality there isnt a lot they can do about it.

My advise would be to stay where you are, knowing that you can leave any time in the next year with 42 days written notice.

Just be sure to give them notice of your intentions to continue on a part 4 tenancy, as you can be held liable for any costs that they incur when advertising the place when under the impression that you would have been leaving.

Depending on how long you are renting, you should be able to reach an agreement with the LL and I would aim for 6 - 8 weeks which is what we did.

Also - if you get contracts signed and solicitors are happy and the house you are moving to is vacant you could maybe look at getting a "caretaker" agreement which has some risks but should be ok.

Ask your Solicitor - this advice is part of what you pay them for!