Moving from rental to rental

Red Alert

Given that I've to give 28 days notice in my current property, if I were to view a property and sign a lease on it, would I effectively have to start the new lease immediately - i.e. renting two properties at the same time for the guts of 3 weeks? What's the best way to handle this situation?

godtabh

Red Alert wrote: »

Given that I've to give 28 days notice in my current property, if I were to view a property and sign a lease on it, would I effectively have to start the new lease immediately - i.e. renting two properties at the same time for the guts of 3 weeks? What's the best way to handle this situation?

Find a property that is available from the.date your current lease ends

sunnysoutheast

Red Alert wrote: »

Given that I've to give 28 days notice in my current property, if I were to view a property and sign a lease on it, would I effectively have to start the new lease immediately - i.e. renting two properties at the same time for the guts of 3 weeks? What's the best way to handle this situation?

If the other property were empty then yes I would expect so, or take the chance on losing it to someone else. Very common situation.

If you do sign you could perhaps make it clear to the other landlord/agent that you will be happy to faciliate viewings and move early, on condition that your deposit is returned and any rent is refunded pro-rata if/when someone else moves in before your notice period expires.

nj78

Red Alert wrote: »

Given that I've to give 28 days notice in my current property, if I were to view a property and sign a lease on it, would I effectively have to start the new lease immediately - i.e. renting two properties at the same time for the guts of 3 weeks? What's the best way to handle this situation?

Red Alert - This is always a tricky situation and I suspect one that regularly keeps people renewing leases for rentals that they are not happy in. Most rental properties won't be advertised until the previous tenants have left, therefore landlords want them filled asap when they go on the market. From what I've seen recently, rentals are being snapped up quickly in most areas so potential tenants don't have much bargaining power.
So the short answer is Yes, you will most likely end up paying 2 rents for a certain period of time. My advice would be to start looking at new rentals as quickly as possible (even before you give your notice). If you find one, then you can propose the start date begin at a time in the future. Best case is the landlord agrees, worst case he doesn't - in which case you need to decide then whether it is worth overlapping rents to secure the new place. If you decide it's not, then repeat... Again, worst case is that towards the end of your notice period you will already be familiar with what type of properties are in the area, what cost, what demand there is, who are the good (and more importantly bad) estate agents, etc., and you aren't going out in a blind panic in the last few days before your lease ends.
Hope that helps somewhat

Red Alert

Great, thanks for the help. Worse case I may just have to suck it up for a month, but good advice above