Renting a house that's on the market...(and we didn't know!)

bethanchloe

Hi,

I'm not sure if you can help me with this but I thought I'd give it a go!
I recently began renting a house (beginning of Feb 2010) and am on a 6-month rolling contract. I have since found out the landlord has the house on the market and wishes to have people viewing the house whilst we live in it - we were never told this was the case previous to moving in / signing the agreement and it's a bit unnerving.
I was just wondering if there was anything we could do at all? We were hoping to stay here for a number of years but it feels like we'll be homeless after just the 6 months. Agreeing to the 6 month contract seemed like the right tthing to do at the time !
Also, he is sending people around to view the house to ensure the HIPs stay valid? How often are we going to have to have these viewings for this purpose?
I'm really really annoyed!
I hope someone can tell me what the best thing to do is...hopefully if we are allowed to renew the contract we're hoping to renew it for a further year rather than 6 months and then go from there?
I'm more worried about getting to August and having no home!

anniecave

when the house is being marketed, is it being advertised as a buy to let opportunity (with a tenant already in place) or does it say ideal first time buyer property, or family home or other words to imply it would be for the owner to live in? or does it not mention any of these

bitsandpieces

anniecave makes a good point - if a Landlord buys it and wants to keep renting it out, you could stay in the place.

You can refuse to let anyone in to view the house. However, the Landlord may well give you notice if you do so - so you could be asked to leave in Aug anyway.

Sounds like the house has been on the market for a good while, though, if he's needing to renew the HIP (unless there's a specific regulation around selling a rented house). Even if LL is seeking to sell to owner-occupiers, you could allow viewings (I'd agree some groundrules with LL/Estate Agent, so this doesn't drive you up the wall) and hope the place doesn't sell.

Others may be able to suggest other options.

bethanchloe

anniecave wrote: »

when the house is being marketed, is it being advertised as a buy to let opportunity (with a tenant already in place) or does it say ideal first time buyer property, or family home or other words to imply it would be for the owner to live in? or does it not mention any of these

Thanks for your feedback!
I've got the information off the online advert it says:

LargeThree Bedroom Mid-Terraced Property

• Enclosed Rear Yard
• Entrance Hall-Lounge
• Double Glazing & Gas Central Heating
• Dining Room-Fitted Kitchen
• Ideal Investment Property
• Family Bathroom
• Viewing is Highly Recommended

The mention of potential to let and investment property is a relatively good sign perhaps?

bethanchloe

bitsandpieces wrote: »

anniecave makes a good point - if a Landlord buys it and wants to keep renting it out, you could stay in the place.

You can refuse to let anyone in to view the house. However, the Landlord may well give you notice if you do so - so you could be asked to leave in Aug anyway.

Sounds like the house has been on the market for a good while, though, if he's needing to renew the HIP (unless there's a specific regulation around selling a rented house). Even if LL is seeking to sell to owner-occupiers, you could allow viewings (I'd agree some groundrules with LL/Estate Agent, so this doesn't drive you up the wall) and hope the place doesn't sell.

Others may be able to suggest other options.

Well it was derelict since 2008 before we moved in so he must have had it on the market for quite some time. I think he's completely fed up of it if I'm honest 'cause he had some really awful tenants before us.
He's had to fit new everything, including gas and electricity meters and we had to get a new phoneline installed too.
He did say they'll never get their asking price so don't worry but we would not have moved in if we knew he was trying to sell it!

RobertoMoir

bethanchloe wrote: »

The mention of potential to let and investment property is a relatively good sign perhaps?

Not as good as mentioning the property is actually rented to tenants right now.

bethanchloe

RobertoMoir wrote: »

Not as good as mentioning the property is actually rented to tenants right now.

I don't believe that advert is remotely up to date. I'm assuming these people, whoever they may be as we haven't been told, who are coming next week will realise or actually already know we live here.
Just got the message that 'We need to keep the viewings to keep the HIPs valid' ...
I'm assuming its someone from their agency coming as opposed to potential buyers then.
The lack of proper communication is ridiculous. They've already said people were coming to view before and nobody turned up.

PasturesNew

£75k ... that's a cheap 'un!

It is being advertised as "investment property".... not that anybody much would pay attention to that bit I guess if they liked the look of it.

bethanchloe

PasturesNew wrote: »

£75k ... that's a cheap 'un!

It is being advertised as "investment property".... not that anybody much would pay attention to that bit I guess if they liked the look of it.

The area / current state of the house makes me think £75k is a bit much...
The landlord has said he knows he won't get that much for it and he knows it won't sell, but it's obvious he is just saying that to keep us quiet.
It does need completely modernising.

RobertoMoir

bethanchloe wrote: »

I don't believe that advert is remotely up to date.

OK that makes sense.

bethanchloe wrote: »

I'm assuming these people, whoever they may be as we haven't been told, who are coming next week will realise or actually already know we live here.
Just got the message that 'We need to keep the viewings to keep the HIPs valid' ...
I'm assuming its someone from their agency coming as opposed to potential buyers then.
The lack of proper communication is ridiculous. They've already said people were coming to view before and nobody turned up.

Strictly speaking, as a tenant you have the right to "quiet enjoyment" of your home without being bothered all the time. If you poke around the forum you'll see this matter discussed countless times, with talk about the pros and cons of acting on this right. It may be someone else's property but it's your home and it's up to you if and when these visits take place.

I'm not suggesting you go mad for this right, as I say, there are pros and cons to using it and you really should review the discussions about it before using it, but if they aren't communicating with you properly about viewers and the like then I think a quiet word to let them know you are aware of your rights in this matter and that a little bit of consideration and co-operation wouldn't be a bad idea seems reasonable to me.

bethanchloe

RobertoMoir wrote: »

Strictly speaking, as a tenant you have the right to "quiet enjoyment" of your home without being bothered all the time. If you poke around the forum you'll see this matter discussed countless times, with talk about the pros and cons of acting on this right. It may be someone else's property but it's your home and it's up to you if and when these visits take place.

I'm not suggesting you go mad for this right, as I say, there are pros and cons to using it and you really should review the discussions about it before using it, but if they aren't communicating with you properly about viewers and the like then I think a quiet word to let them know you are aware of your rights in this matter and that a little bit of consideration and co-operation wouldn't be a bad idea seems reasonable to me.

True, I think you're right really...
I'm just a bit annoyed especially today as we're really busy at the moment and explained we can't really be around any reasonable hour for the next couple of weeks (we work in catering, mainly 12 hour shifts from 9am onwards)
The response was that they needed access to the property and would prefer it if we were here but they had to have access this week anyway, so obviously one of us is going to have to take time off work as its completely not right for them to be in the house without us! However, I'm a bit annoyed about having to lose wages because of it and also they still haven't told us exactly who/what we're waiting in for!
I'm just annoyed that they hid this from us until we signed for the property :mad: