ᐅ Are building plans reliable? When is the right time to terminate your rental lease?

I would like to ask you how long before moving into your new house you gave notice to terminate your previous rental apartment. At what stage of the building process or how much time before the move do you consider appropriate to be on the safe side? We have the usual(?) notice period of 3 months.

The reason for my question is probably clear: not to pay rent longer than necessary, but also to avoid having to stay in a hotel for (several) weeks and store furniture. We have recently moved to this area and therefore cannot stay temporarily with friends or relatives.

We are not at that stage yet, but we will only give notice once the handover date is confirmed. In our case, we even have two apartments since we are not living together yet. Because my partner already lives near the site where our house will be built, we need his apartment as a temporary solution for my school-age child, since there will likely be some overlap with the new school year.

I would rather bite the bullet and keep paying rent for 1-2 more months. That way, there is enough time to organize the move and possibly wait for any necessary defect repairs that might delay a quick move-in.

There is also the new kitchen to consider. Delays can always happen, no matter how well planned. I have already had to manage for two months with two small children without a kitchen. That was really stressful. At least we had a refrigerator and a microwave.

That depends entirely on your construction company, and only you know them.
If you need to do any work yourselves after handover, that would be your responsibility as well.

We had a detailed plan and a handover date. The overlap (house/apartment) was about 2 weeks. During that time, we moved and spruced up (renovated) the apartment.

Pinkiponk schrieb:

We have recently moved to this area and therefore cannot stay temporarily with friends or relatives.

Two misconceptions:
1. You don't have to stay _there_; you could stay in your previous residence or somewhere else entirely 😉
2. Even if you were to stay somewhere, the furniture would still need to be stored temporarily.

Is renovating no longer necessary these days? I would recommend including a rental cushion. Even if it’s just to allow for a slow, gradual move. But that’s not an option for you.

We arranged a replacement tenant ourselves back then and were able to terminate the contract early. Depending on the popularity of the location, this can be done quite quickly.

Pinkiponk schrieb:

I would like to ask you how far in advance you canceled the lease on your previous rental before moving into your new house, at what stage in the building process, or how much time before the move you consider reasonable to be on the safe side. We have the usual (?) notice period of 3 months.

The background of my question is probably clear: Not paying rent longer than necessary, but also avoiding having to stay in a hotel for (several) weeks and store furniture. We have recently moved to this area and cannot stay temporarily with friends or family.

We are facing the same situation right now. We agreed that we’d rather pay rent for one month longer than stay in a hotel. Also, you can move in first and then renovate the old apartment at your own pace. Some delivery times are still uncertain for us at the moment. Because of that, we decide spontaneously at the end of each month. We have a 3-month notice period but rent is only 550 € (about $600), so it is manageable even with the mortgage payment.