Our tenancy contract starts in 6 days, but it falls on a Sunday and the propery agent that we’re renting from doesn’t work Sundays. We have spoken to the lanlord about a time that we can move in on Sunday, and after some weird roundabout communication, he’s said that we can pick up the keys on Saturday PM.
I’ve now asked for a definite time for key collection on Saturday as we are now less than a week from moving in, and he’s now being hesitant to give us a time and I’m not sure why. He says he’s “not keen giving a time before our move in date other than PM” and that he hopes “it goes well and that it will be ready earlier…”.
I’m no landlord, so I don’t understand what could be stopping him from giving us a time and a good explanation. There’s 11 days between the previous tenants and us, so wouldn’t the landlord just say, “hey, we’re just waiting for some work to be done, so can’t give you a solid time right now.”
Anyway, I can’t find any relevant discussion about this on Open Rent, so what to start this one. Many thanks.
It’s a Saturday
It’s the weekend
He’s going out of his way to accommodate you because the estate agent, who he pays a management fee to out of the rent you pay, doesn’t work on Sunday
So he’s paying someone and doing their job for them
He may have personal commitments so he can’t give a finite time
I appreciate that, but he’s not. He works for a small family property agent who are the ones to buy and let properties. So we’re dealing with them directly. No 3rd party agents involed.
If he didn’t want the hassle at a weekend, he shouldn’t have made the move in day a Sunday.
Yes, but we’ve booked moving van for Sunday because that’s the start of our tenancy. We asked for a move in time on Sunday before we booked the van and he just said 4pm Sunday, couldn’t do an early checkin. I didn’t understand what he was talking about as I just asked for a move in time. And then the next morning he said, actually i dont work Sunday so Saturday PM would be better. So we went ahead and booked the van.
And again, why did he say Sunday for that tenacy start if he can’t do Sundays
So, you’ve signed a contract which starts on a Sunday. I have to say that I would have queried this when I signed because I would have wanted assurances that I could move in on the Sunday or, if not, would have asked for it to be varied to a day when I could have moved in. In any case, the date a contract starts doesn’t have to equate to the day you check in so an arrangement for check in on a different day could have been made earlier. I would have raised the issue of having to book a removal van as a key point in negotiations at that point.
It turns out now that Sunday is in fact inconvenient (for whatever reason) and that Saturday PM is. No, he’s not given you a time yet but you’ve no proof that he won’t keep his word until Sunday comes and you don’t have keys. IOW, you could be worrying about nothing at all.
If you have somewhere to stay, then presumably you could have waited until you’d got keys before booking the van. You could also now call the moving company and ask them to switch to Monday when you know you will have keys.
I know it’s super stressful for you, but as nothing has actually happened yet, and you’ve so far suffered no loss, it’s hard to suggest much else I’m afraid.
I am probably worrying for nothing, as nothing has happened or been said yet, but having rented in the past, tenancy start has always been move in day for us - this might not he standard but it’s normal for us.
I hoped to make it clear to him that I was trying to make a clear difference between picking up the keys and moving in, but I feel like we’ve miscommunicated somewhere with that.
I still stand on my hill that he should be more clear about what is going on. New tenancy is stressful for the landlord and the new tenants so open communication is key. And again, he was also the one who suggested tenancy on the Sunday as it was previously the 11th and he wanted to move it in case work needed to be done. We’ve been looking for somewhere to live for almost 18 months with no luck, so it may have been our quick leap to agree to anything that has blinded us to quering things.
He had previously clarified that Saturday PM would be key collection and we could move in any time after that, but it now feels like he’s backtracking as he won’t give us a time and I just wish he was more forthcoming.
I appreciate you answering, and letting me know that tenancy start doesn’t always equate to move in day as I think this is where I’m getting confused.
Actually, the tenancy almost always does start on the day you move in. Its possible for the contract to start before then, but that usually causes confusion.
It is. The tenancy start date is the first date of your contract and the property should be available for move-in on that date. If you choose to move in later that is fine, but that’s your choice.