stacey and jordan

Never had to rent a house before, looking in our local paper at rented accommodation for the Midlands. How does it work? Do you have to put down a deposit up front or 2 months rent in advance. Alot of the accommodation i was looking at was for 6/12 months contracts, can you have a 1/2/3/4/5 month contract/lease. Any info on renting would be much appreciated

Stacey xx

Sue from Manchester

You usually have to put down a bond which is 4 times the weekly rent. This is held by the rental authority, not the agent, and is returned at the end of the lease if there is no damage and you have left the place clean. You then have to pay 2 weeks rent in advance. Rental leases are usually for 6 months or 12 months but I had one for 9 months.

Welshie

We initially have a six month contract which is up this month and then we just go on a monthly contract or we can change it to more if we want it. Bond was a month's rent and we had to pay a month up front.

Shell & Ash

Is it unheard of to break the lease if you, say, buy a house two months into a 6 month rental agreement. This is what we are thinking of doing, but feel really guilty about it.

Shelley

Paul and Chloe

It seems to be reasonably common to break leases, some friends of ours just did it when they bought a place. You will be responsible for the rent until the real estate agents find new tenants or until the end of the contract period which ever comes earliest. You will also sometimes have to pay the checkout charge which would normally be picked up by the landlord at the end of a rental period and potentially some advertsing costs too.

Rental costs generally are:

4 weeks bond
2 weeks rent in advance
1 week real estate agents fee

all in advance.

Cheers

Paul

Shell & Ash

Thanks Paul. Just waiting for a call from the agent to tell us what its going to cost. Hopefully will have delayed the completion date for two months and so it means we will only have to pay the two outstanding months.