Tenants won't leave the house we are buying!

Moomin21

Hi Everyone

I've had lots of help from this forum but wondered if i could ask for a little more!!

Everything went quiet with our purchase starting a couple of weeks ago and yesterday I found out why. the estate agents rang to say the vendor was having a problem getting rid of the tenants. They won't leave as the bloke has lost his job and the woman is pregnant apparently, and are waiting for a council house. The vendor is apparently trying to get a section 21 notice to evict them, but apparently after/if this comes through, they still have to give 2 months notice!!! if that fails i will go to court!

Does anyone have any experience of this and the timescales that may be involved? we were hoping to exchange on 1st December, but it looks from the information I've been given that it will be Feb at the earliest

Thanks is advance

xx

Planner

S.21 notice must be served first. Assuming the tenants are outside of their fixed term contract period the s.21 notice must give at least 2 months notice ending on the same date a rent period ends.

If after expiry of the s.21 notice the tenants are still there (which is very likley given the cirrcumstances) then the LL will need to apply to court. This will take maybe a further two months.

If everything has been served correctly, the judge will order an eviction, however he can give a further 'grace period' - ie the eviction might not be immediate given the cirrcumstances (could be a further month).

If come the eviction date, the tenants are still there, the LL will have to apply for the baliffs to visit the property to remove them. This could take a further month.

So best case scenario (unlikley given unemployed and expecting) - the tenants move out within the next 2 months.

Worse case (more likley scenario) - 2 months notice + 2 months court + 1 month grace + 1 month baliff = 6 months.

You wont be able to exchange and by no means should you until you have vacant possession.

I think you have found a case of a LL wanting his cake and eating it - i.e. sale with no prior void. You are both now paying for this risky strategy.

ILW

Moomin21 wrote: »

Hi Everyone

I've had lots of help from this forum but wondered if i could ask for a little more!!

Everything went quiet with our purchase starting a couple of weeks ago and yesterday I found out why. the estate agents rang to say the vendor was having a problem getting rid of the tenants. They won't leave as the bloke has lost his job and the woman is pregnant apparently, and are waiting for a council house. The vendor is apparently trying to get a section 21 notice to evict them, but apparently after/if this comes through, they still have to give 2 months notice!!! if that fails i will go to court!

Does anyone have any experience of this and the timescales that may be involved? we were hoping to exchange on 1st December, but it looks from the information I've been given that it will be Feb at the earliest

Thanks is advance

xx

The tenants are probably having a worse time than you though.

BitterAndTwisted

The Section 21 is the document which gives the tenants two months notice. However, that gives the tenants notice that the landlord is seeking possession, not that they necessarily will have to leave once the two months is up. The landlord will have to go to court to actually gain a possession order and that can take a while depending on how busy the courts are. Local Authorities are encouraging tenants to sit tight until the very last minute when the court bailiffs are actually at the property or they will be deemed to have made themselves voluntarily homeless and will not be rehoused.

All this eviction process is the vendor's responsibility and you should not proceed until you can purchase with vacant possession. This will always be the case if you are purchasing with a mortgage and your solicitor will not be able proceed until it's vacant.

It sounds to me that you will most probably not be in until February at the very earliest.

slummymummyof3

I wouldn't go down the route of exchange until the tennants have left! Perhaps it might be viable to look at another property before you spend anymore money involved in the purchase of this one.

Jowo_2

Do you know if they are within a fixed term period and if so, when does it end?

Councils have a reputation of telling a tenant served notice by the landlord to ignore it until they take them to court. This is because in some areas there's high demand for their homelessness services and they tell the tenants that they'll be considered intentionally homeless if they leave before they are legally required to. They shouldn't do this type of gate-keeping, the advice from the local ombudsman to councils are not to give this advice if there is a strong likelihood of the judgement being made in favour of the landlord. Some landlords sue their councils who issue this advice and get compensation for their legal expenses because its against the guidance issued to councils.

There's nothing to stop the tenants from finding private accommodation, though its harder for benefit claimants to find a landlord precisely because they have a reputation for being more likely to ignore notices served to leave the property, but cheap rent and a secure lifetime tenancy is very prized so the tenants may very well prefer to sit it out.

Some landlords offer compensation to tenants to leave early, a bribe, which might not work in this case if the tenants are fixated on getting social housing as pregnant women are considered a priority group for assistance by a local council housing dept.

evoke

ILW wrote: »

The tenants are probably having a worse time than you though.

Or you could be a cynic and suggest that the tenants engineered this scenario to get a free council house?

franklee

Moomin21 wrote: »

The vendor is apparently trying to get a section 21 notice to evict them, but apparently after/if this comes through, they still have to give 2 months notice!!! if that fails i will go to court!

The vendor is taking the mick, he should have served notice well before exchange of contracts is almost due. Did you explain to your solicitor that the property was let? He should have told you what the pitfalls and possible timescales are. Really letting and selling don't mix. While let it's the tenant's home and if the council tell tenants to hang on till formally evicted or become intentionally homeless then they are likely to stay put. Time to chat this over with your solicitor and then see if you want to wait it out.

googler

I take it you knew when you made your offer that there were sitting tenants...... and you didn't anticipate, even at the back of your mind, that there was the possibility that this might happen....?

silvercar

It is the sellers problem not yours. The seller needs to ensure vacant possession on completion day. A sensible solicitor will advise a seller not to exchange until they have vacant possession. If they take a risk and exchange with the tenants in situ it is still the sellers responsibility to ensure vacant possession on completion. Whether they do this by trying to get a very fast court and baliff eviction or by making a payment to the tenants to shift them is not the buyers problem. Should the seller fail to secure vacant possession by completion they would be liable for all the buyers cost until such time as they did arrange vacant possession.

Moomin21

thanks everyone, there are a few points here that i hadn't thought of, such as the tenants not moving out voluntarily as this would hinder their chances of getting a council house.

I should have mentioned that there is NO tenancy agreement due to the tenants being 'friends' of the landlord...i bet they're not friends anymore though!

the house went on the market in july, and if i were the tenant, i would have been looking and moving out pretty sharpish to avoid this situation!! the woman told us she had just found out she was pregnant on our second viewing so before he lost his job they should have left..maybe that's just what i would do and shouldn't expect others to do the 'right thing'.

thanks for your advice...the house IS worth waiting for (bargain, good area, good investment) but feels like we have been waiting forever!!

xx