Delays in completing on flat- help!

ellewellyn

Hi all,

would be really grateful for some advice about what anyone else would do in our situation- basically we want to complete next week and move into our new flat but the vendor cant get rid of the tenents who are in it at the moment!! so by next Sunday we're gonna be homeless as we've already given notice on the flat we are renting at the moment. The problem is that the vendors solicitors put in the contract that completion would be on 18/08 as they wanted a bit of leeway in case anything went wrong in giving notice to the tenants who are currently in that flat. However the vendor and his solicitors assured us that this later completion date was just a precaution and that there would be no problem with us bringing the completion date forward to the 22/07.

With this assurance, we gave notice on our current flat that we will be out by 01/08 and so the landlord has got new tenants moving in after that.

if we dont complete by 01/08/10, then my boyfriend and i will be homeless which is not what we want!!

does anyone know if there is any legal responsibility for the vendor to complete sooner, or can he keep delaying us until the 18/08, especially if his tenents still dont have a moving out plan?

Or can anyone advise us what we can do in this scenario???

Many thanks in advance!

ellewellyn

should probably say that we think the tenants are housed by the council- does anyone know what their obligations to relocate them are??

Thank you!!

casperlarue

Have you exchanged contracts yet? It reads that you haven't yet so you seem to be getting a bit ahead of the game by giving notice on your flat when your new purchase isn't ready yet.

sonastin

Your completion date is actually 18/08. Anything earlier than this is a gift from the vendor not an obligation that you can enforce. You shouldn't have given notice on your flat for any date earlier than 18/08 unless you had contingency for somewhere to stay.

Can you stay with friends/family in the meantime?

What will happen if the tenants refuse to move out by 18/08? You should talk to your solicitor about the implications if the vendor can't provide vacant posession on the completion date.

Doozergirl

Have you exchanged?

If the tenants are playing this in order to be re-housed by the council then I think that the council will advise them to stay where they are until they are formally evicted?

Jowo_2

Have a look at the Shelter website to understand how a homelessness application is processed by a local council - they are only obliged to find accommodation for certain groups on a statutory basis and not at all if they deem the tenants to have made themselves homeless by doing something that led to their eviction, such as not paying the rent or anti social behaviour.

Some councils have a reputation of having a gate keeping function to their services to cut down on demand. This is where they tell a tenant who has been served 2 months notice via an S21 notice to quit to ignore it until the landlord has gained a court order for possession. If a tenant doesn't leave of their own volition, the only way to get them out is with a court order and if they ignore this, it has to be enforced with bailiffs.

You need to find out when their notice to quit expires which is the first opportunity for the landlord to apply to the court to take the next step. If the tenants are staying put, depending on local court turnaround on applications, it might be anything up to a month or so before they get the date in court. Then the judge will give the tenants between 2 and about 6 weeks notice before they actually have to leave. If the notice to quit has been served incorrectly, the judge will throw the case out which means another 2 months notice has to be served, then the possession order applied for in the court (another month plus for the court date, plus extra time for the tenant to leave the property if the judge finds in favour of the landlord).

EDIT - Guidelines issued to local councils do make it clear that they should not advise a tenant to stay put and ignore the notice when there is a reasonable chance that the possession order will be granted. Also, the Shelter website makes clear that this should not happen. You could ask your solicitor to take this up with theirs, if that's the advice that's been given. Some landlords take their council to court or to the local council ombudsman (or similar body, forget what it's called), citing the specific guidance and they get awarded their legal costs for the eviction. Might be worth clarifying on the Landlordzone website how some landlords have successfully challenged advice to the tenants to stay in the property in order to get the sellers solicitor to apply pressure on the council to undertake their statutory obligation to assist their homeless tenants rather than push back on the landlord.

ellewellyn

We exchanged on June 22nd.

The problem is that we had to give 2 months notice on our flat though, so even before we exchanged we gave notice based on the EA who assured us we would be able to complete at the end of july... so we gave our notice on 01/06 to be out by the 01/08. nightmare!

yes we can stay with my cousin if needs be but it involves putting all our stuff into storage and moving twice which is so annoying and expensive.

lynzpower

Doozergirl wrote: »

Have you exchanged?

If the tenants are playing this in order to be re-housed by the council then I think that the council will advise them to stay where they are until they are formally evicted?

This is likely to be exactly what is happening. Id ask your landlord if you can have another couple of months.

haras_nosirrah

My sister bought a property that had HA tenants in it and was advised by her solicitor not to exchange until tenants were gone for this same reason - no guarantee that they will be out in time. Also if you exchange with the property in a certain condition I don't believe they have to give it to you in a better one (i.e. if tenants trash house do they have to make good the damage)

My Sis wouldn't exchange until the tenants were out and place had been scrubbed up nicely. Not sure if you have any come back on solicitor here as you were, in my opinion, put in a bad position to exchange with no gtee when you would move in

ellewellyn

yeah its really not ideal. i would not have given notice on the flat without knowing the completion date if we hadnt needed to give so much notice! Bloody Foxtons!

I think the vendor has a plan in mind if the tenants wont budge- but I guess he has no obligation to do so until 18th August...

does anyone know what happens if the flat is not vacant by the completion date?

casperlarue

ellewellyn wrote: »

does anyone know what happens if the flat is not vacant by the completion date?

Jowo's post no.6 above explains the process for you.

Legally I don't know what would happen because when you exchanged you became the legal owner but the tenants have a contract with the previous owner, not you. You really need to speak to your solicitor to find out what the implications are....wheter you would have to get the previous owner to serve the court order etc.