rent $ cross over when moving?

[Salsa]

We are needing to move to a new rental. Problem is we have to give 28 days notice when we are ready to move, but all the rentals in our area are pretty much available now, which means we have to pay for 2 places at the same time for a month.
I have not rented before so not sure if everyone just ends up paying extra if the dates dont work out?
How can we get around this?

[BrightSparkles]

We just ended up paying extra

[suse]

Unless you can negotiate a later start of lease at the new place, unfortunately there's not much you can do but pay the difference. Because of the high demand for rental properties, the landlord is more likely to consider a tenant who will pay from the availability date, and many tenants will do this if they think it will give them the edge.

Having said that, on several occasions in the past I have successfully negotiated for two weeks difference, so it is doable, but it does help if you have an excellent rental history and good references.

[Tobily]

We've never paid more than a week of double rent.

It can be tricky, but when we apply for a place we usually say we'll take it from the date that suits us - and that has sometimes been at least two weeks after the date the property is actually available.

It comes down to how much competition there is for the place that you're after.

We are excellent tenants with a perfect record and so we've always found that landlords are quite prepared to wait that extra week or two to have us and so they've always readily agreed to starting the lease on the date we've wanted.

But yeah, if there is another applicant just as attractive as you who is willing to take the place from the available date, you may lose it. It's a matter of trying to assess what the demand is for the house and if you think there's not much competition for it, you'll probably be able to swing it.

[ACJ]

Salsa - We just moved back to Brisbane from Mackay and stayed with my mum for a month. We found a place but couldn't move for 2 weeks into it and it was available when we looked at it and we put the date on the application that suited us and I am now sitting here in the house typeing this reply to you!! It can all depend on your rental history and how many actually look at the house and put applications on it. There were 7 applications on ours and we got it and I was so suprised that we did get it. Good luck.

[Indadhanu]

We ended up paying a cross over of a week, well you kind of have to pay a little bit extra, since you'll have to move everything from one house to another and have to clean the first house, which you can't do fully unless all the furntiure is out etc. i'm sure you know all that.

We have only ever had the 2 weeks notice rule though, so not too hard to sort that out, give two weeks notice and negotiate with the new house to start the lease a week into the two weeks notice.

[Tobily]

We ended up paying a cross over of a week, well you kind of have to pay a little bit extra, since you'll have to move everything from one house to another and have to clean the first house, which you can't do fully unless all the furntiure is out etc. i'm sure you know all that.

Yep that's the other reason we always pay a week of crossover. It's alot less stressful to move when you have some leeway to come and go between both houses until everything is done. Once we have everything out, we get cleaners in to clean it and then just hand in the keys after they're finished.

I can't imagine the stress of trying juggle things so that the house is empty and cleaned while moving furniture into the new one

[~Raven~]

When we rented we had the same issue and it made it less stressful for us to go back and clean with a bit of time up our sleeves. It's hard but it's something you can budget for if you have a bit of time to save for it.

[Salsa]

I am happy to pay a week or even 2 for cross over, and am expecting we will need that for cleaning. Its just our notice to vacate is 4 weeks, and all the places for rent are available straight away. We live in the inner north of Melbourne, so alot of demand and not alot of places. We owned our own home previous so no history of being good tenants. We did actually have to wait 2 weeks to be able to move into this place though a year ago, but now it seems most places dont have wait times - they want you in straight away. With rent prices around $400 pw, a months double rent is alot of extra to have to folk out.
I guess we will just have to wait and see what comes up.

[DoubleK]

we've had to adjust our move in/move out dates a few times. one of the good things about living in a small town, all the RA's know each other, so it makes it easier if you're going from one to another!

the last time we moved, we picked up the new keys on the friday, and handed old keys back on the monday... to really we only paid a few days 'double'