My wife and I, both retired, are thinking of making a move to another county in order to be closer to our married daughter and family, which, incidentally, is the reason I joined Openrent in the first place. However, having spent a fair bit of time reading many of the posts on here I am beginning to wonder if it might be a waste of time. I mean, we are not under any pressure to move (we’ve been in our present home for about 45 years) but having seen some of the obstacles that would-be tenants can face, I am starting to have misgivings. What I would like to know is what would our prospects be if we went ahead with this? What difficulties might we encounter, taking into account our age and being both retired? Things like references, guarantors, deposits and advance rent are not a problem. Any advice welcome.
You mean you own your home and are going to rent or you rent now?
Don’t be put off by the negative discussions, I can assure you generally both landlords and tenants are fair minded people,
You seem to have everything in place to go ahead with renting, if I had an empty property in the area you required I would willingly consider you.
I’m also not clear whether you mean letting out your own house or renting somewhere yourself when you are in another country?
Thanks to all for the input. Very much appreciated. We are presently in a 3 bedroom council house which we took possession of in the early seventies. They recently built a motorway bypass close by, which is another reason we are considering a move, as the air pollution has probably tripled because of this. We have registered with the District Council where our daughter lives, and we ‘bid’ on various properties as they become available under the ‘Over 55s’ bidding system, but preference is, of course, given to people who already reside in the area or have higher priorities. Fortunately, as I said in my post, we are not under any pressure, which makes things a little easier. I think, now, I’ll take it from there and start looking.
If you are currently a council tenant I believe you are much more secure than a private tenant. It could be that a private landlord, while well intentioned, would need to occupy or sell the property. You might want the property for the remainder of your lives but your landlord’s plans could change. In your shoes, I would be more concerned about this than any other issues.
good point made by Tony, ,more security with the council
Thanks for the input. We’ve wasted a lot of time on these council housing exchange sites, so many time-wasters on there. After a while, they become identifiable, wanting to live ‘anywhere in the UK’, plus never giving a full description of the facilities available (garden, parking, schools, shopping etc) and invariably young(ish}. They give me the impression that they want to see how their friends react when they tell them they are moving. This whole thing was the wife’s idea, by the way. Our daughter used to live about 50 miles away, which was OK for visiting, but now, having moved, they are a couple of hours drive away and my wife misses the visits and shopping trips. Anyway, we’ll plod on with it, we’re not under any pressure so we’ll see how it goes. Thanks again.