I like the unspoken part where the people who have lived in this home must vacate when she decides she wants to spend a few years living in the UK again. They should have to find new accommodation when it suits her, but she is not subject to such requirements.
I don’t know how it its where you live/the UK but there is probably a special clause/law that allows the owner to end the contract if they want to use the property themselves.
Edit: Downvote as much as you want but at least in Germany and France such clauses exist.
Downvoting because you know damn well how tight the rental market is. You're not guaranteed to find a new apartment in the grace period you have before your eviction is due. Moving also incurs significant time and cost for moving your stuff, lost work days, and the rent which is sure to be higher.
That is my point! You can’t rely on a minimum clause when your landlord can evict you by claiming they want to live there themselves.
I never claimed that that I like this or that this somehow good. The housing market is a steaming pile of shit pretty much worldwide.
As a renters we(!) need be very aware of local laws and regulations regarding rent. Own use claim is not the only way to get evicted: in some cases fixing something in your flat might by regarded as a violation of contract and you’re out.
I have an old contract in one of tightest markets in Germany. If I had to move out my rent would triple.
So yes, I’m aware of the shit market - take my comment as a heads up, not a praise of the situation.
I had a sociopathic narcissistic ex-boyfriend who did that. He owned a townhouse that people were renting out, and when his wife left him and their house was foreclosed and he got evicted, he kicked out his tenants and moved into his townhouse.
HE KICKED OUT HIS TENANTS SO HE COULD MOVE IN 😟
I do not approve of this master/slave dynamic that the housing industry has created. It's inhumane, unethical, sociopathic,
I recently bought an apartment, and while I was searching I always made sure to ask if the apartments I was looking at were being rented (the listings never disclosed that information), and giving up on the ones that had tenants living in them. This always earned me weird looks from the agents - "you can just buy the apartment and kick them out". Yes, the law and the contract will allow it, but my conscience wouldn't.