2 months till tenant can move in

Hello all, my new prospective tenant didn’t read their current rental agreement properly and it states they can only give a months notice on the 1st of each month to leave their current place, they did it on the 3rd which now means they have to wait another month before they can move into mine making it two months. 2 months losing rental income essentially. Any thoughts on how to approach this issue … Best.

Have you already referenced them? Did you have a second choice of tenants who could start sooner?

If so, you could give the original tenants the choice of having to pay for an ‘overlap’ of tenancies or switch to the alternative choice. Harsh, but at the end of the day it’s their mistake.

This seems a common mistake I’ve seen happen a lot when tenants mistake a ‘rolling tenancy’ for being on-going, rather than rolling on month–by-month. When I prescreen tenants I always ask their tenancy renewal date.

The tenants sound like people that stick to the terms and rules of a tenancy agreement so just wait it out and end up with good tenants!!

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This is a tricky one. They may be genuine and really did not realise the notice clause, but do you want tenants like this? they may be the sort that don’t read the washing machine instructions or don’t realise they have to notify you of house defects.
They may be trying it on because they want your property and know you were unlikely to hold the property for the extra month without income.
If you interviewed the tenants yourself you can probably tell if it’s a one off genuine mistake, and they will be decent tenants, if you believe they are and you can manage financially, meet them halfway and suggest they pay two weeks of your lost rent, if they refuse to even do this, then you may be better off in the long run with different tenants.

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