The Good News- We have a house

[firecat88]

After much searching and a little negotiating, we're finally buying a house. The packing process has been easier/faster this time than it was last time. My room is mostly packed, the upstairs bedrooms are taken care of, and the kitchen is slowly getting done.

This is where the not-so-good news comes in. At the beginning of this month, we got a letter from the lady who owns our rental house. We have until the 31st of this month to pack up and be out of this house. However, the closing on our new house is, as of right now, not until the 25th of February. @_@ We're trying to get it rescheduled to the end of this month, but it's kinda starting to look like we're going to be in a hotel for a couple of weeks.

I have a cat. She is almost 19 years old and has never been away from us for more than a week. Do extended stay hotels take cats?

[Kittish]

Some of them do. I'd call around and ask. Seems fairly likely that a pet deposit would be required.

[Ironclad Alibi]

... We have until the 31st of this month to pack up and be out of this house. However, the closing on our new house is, as of right now, not until the 25th of February. ...

Ask your realtor is there is a possibility of renting your new house for the month prior to closing.

[firecat88]

Ask your realtor is there is a possibility of renting your new house for the month prior to closing.

...that is actually a really clever idea and I didn't know that could be done. o.o

[wolfie]

Another thing to check is whether the landlady gave you the legally required amount of notice. Different jurisdictions require different amounts of notice, and in some case the same jurisdiction will require different amounts of notice depending on the reason for wanting a tenant out (for example, roughly 30 years ago in B.C. it was 60 days if the space was needed by a relative of the landlord, and either 90 or 120 if the building was going to be converted to condominiums). Check with whatever government department regulates landlord/tenant issues - I assume when you signed the deal on your house, you gave notice that you'd be vacating by the end of February, and that you're current on your rent. She might have found someone who wants to rent, but wants the place as of the beginning of February. If she's required to give more than a month's notice, you can fight the eviction, and what can she do about it - give you a bad reference if a future landlord checks?

[Teefies2]

And congrats on buying a house!

[EricKei]

Check with pet grooming/boarding places -- some of them may take cats.

[Seshat]

Another option is a vet that is also a boarding place. My own family vet does boarding, and would care for one of our pets in such a situation.

That said, it would definitely be better for your cat to be with you.

Try looking for the key phrase 'short term housing' or 'short term accomodation' or even 'short term rental'. Add the name of your city and/or state, if you find the first google page too full of other-places.

You may find that house-sitting is a solution, or that you have a friend who knows the cat and will let you stay with them to ensure minimum disturbance for kitty.

[Sapphire Silk]

...that is actually a really clever idea and I didn't know that could be done. o.o

It will only work if the seller has already moved out. But yes, it can be done and I urge you to look into it.

Whoever mentioned notice has a good point; if your notice was for later then she can't legally expect you to leave, and she can't force you out. It takes time to get a notice of eviction, and she'd lose in court if you fought it.

But if you gave notice you'd be out before that there is nothing you can do. You have to be out.

What I did when I bought my house was give notice for 30 days AFTER the house closed. I didn't have to make a house payment that first month, and paying one more month of rent gave me the time to paint and otherwise spruce up the new place, and to take my time packing and moving. I paid a mover to move just the big heavy stuff, which balanced out what I paid on the rent, and moved the small light stuff on my own gradually after work and on weekends. I was living in the house pretty quickly, and that gave me time to clean up the apartment so I got my security deposit back.

Best way to move ever.

Check with pet grooming/boarding places -- some of them may take cats.

Well, I think the point is to keep the cat with the OP. That is the better solution if at all possible. However, if push comes to shove most vets offer boarding services. I board Taz at my vet when I'm out of town more than two days.

[firecat88]

Yeah, I would really prefer not to put Chloe somewhere. She doesn't get along with other animals, is a very picky eater, and, though she's surprisingly spry for her age, she's half-blind and walks with a slight limp thanks to being hit by a car about 10 years ago. She's also my baby who I've had since we moved *to* Colorado. So we definitely are exploring the route of pet-friendly hotels and stuff.

As for what the situation was with our lease- We moved into this house on December 21, 2013. The way the majority of rentals work around here, they go by the year or the half-year. Thus, technically, our lease was up on December 31, 2014. We've been allowed to stay an extra month at the cost of an extra fifty dollars on our monthly rent payment (it was in our lease that we could do that if we go month-by-month).

Beginning of this month, though, we got a letter from the realty company that we have to be outta here on January 31...which I have no idea why she's so determined to get rid of us when we would happily keep doing the month-to-month thing. We were the very first people to actually rent the house, we've never missed a rent payment, we aren't even using the upstairs bedrooms, it's the middle of winter and, thus, a bad time for real estate... Whatevs. Her loss.

[Gizmo]

What I did when I bought my house was give notice for 30 days AFTER the house closed. I didn't have to make a house payment that first month, and paying one more month of rent gave me the time to paint and otherwise spruce up the new place, and to take my time packing and moving. I paid a mover to move just the big heavy stuff, which balanced out what I paid on the rent, and moved the small light stuff on my own gradually after work and on weekends. I was living in the house pretty quickly, and that gave me time to clean up the apartment so I got my security deposit back.

This was the plan with mine although it got scuppered by Christmas, stuff I couldn't avoid like Friends birthday weekends and the agents being a pain. Didn't help my flatmates new place took longer to come through so I had less time to pack than I thought.

I'd do it again in a heartbeat though.

[BlaqueKatt]

As for what the situation was with our lease- We moved into this house on December 21, 2013. The way the majority of rentals work around here, they go by the year or the half-year. Thus, technically, our lease was up on December 31, 2014. We've been allowed to stay an extra month at the cost of an extra fifty dollars on our monthly rent payment (it was in our lease that we could do that if we go month-by-month).

Beginning of this month, though, we got a letter from the realty company that we have to be outta here on January 31

Even month-to-month has a minimum notice period, it doesn't change just because the lease is up, it simply changes to a monthly lease without extention paperwork.

[taxguykarl]

When my parents bought their house, the sellers asked for more time. My folks reluctantly agreed as their lease had not yet lapsed. Well, the sellers took their own sweet time and my 'rents had to threaten the sellers with a lawsuit for breach of contract (their lease WAS expiring).
As my dad tells the tale, the previous owners were hoarders, so he and mom would dump stuff (mostly empty paint cans and empty boxes) regulary. About a month later my folks walked in on the old owners taking stuff (it was theirs) out of the basement--it seems they had been helping themselves to their old hoard for the past month on the sly.
That's when the locks got changed.

Good luck on the house, firecat.

[bhskittykatt]

I worked at a "Hotel 4+2" for eight years and we took all pets including cats, dogs, goldfish, birds, bunnies, and pot-bellied pigs (I saw it all). We also did weekly rates. If you have one nearby you can check it out; some locations are managed better than others so for an extended stay I'd do a bit of research to see how good or bad your local one is. La Quinta is also known for being a pet-friendly chain.

[Seanette]

As my dad tells the tale, the previous owners were hoarders, so he and mom would dump stuff (mostly empty paint cans and empty boxes) regulary. About a month later my folks walked in on the old owners taking stuff (it was theirs) out of the basement--it seems they had been helping themselves to their old hoard for the past month on the sly.
That's when the locks got changed.

Seems to me like it would be a good idea for a new homeowner to change locks promptly on taking formal possession. After all, you can't know how many copies of the keys are floating around, or who has them, or what use might be made of them.