Tenants threatening to block completion on our property purchase...

GDB2222

The OP's landlord has e-mailed him to tell him that it is okay to stay there. Surely, that is sufficient to restart the clock?

On a purely practical point, I recently have started the eviction process with a tenant. I served a section 8 notice at the end of January, and the possession hearing was at the end of March. (I took each step at the earliest possible opportunity.) The court gave me a possession order for 2 weeks after the court hearing, i.e. mid-April. I am sure that the tenants will still be there then, and I will then have to book the bailiffs. Currently, they have about a 2 months waiting list. So, we are looking at about 5 months from start to finish of the process, 4.5 months of which is after the expiry of the S8 notice.

DVardysShadow

GDB2222 wrote: »

The OP's landlord has e-mailed him to tell him that it is okay to stay there. Surely, that is sufficient to restart the clock?

On a purely practical point, I recently have started the eviction process with a tenant. I served a section 8 notice at the end of January, and the possession hearing was at the end of March. (I took each step at the earliest possible opportunity.) The court gave me a possession order for 2 weeks after the court hearing, i.e. mid-April. I am sure that the tenants will still be there then, and I will then have to book the bailiffs. Currently, they have about a 2 months waiting list. So, we are looking at about 5 months from start to finish of the process, 4.5 months of which is after the expiry of the S8 notice.

I think that for the OP to be sure, the LL's email would need to say that he accepted the OP's notice of quitting was withdrawn. I can envisage that a court might hold that an informal note that the tenant could stay was not enough to invalidate tenant's original notice. And I would not want to see OP going up against an eviction hearing on the strength of that email.

And yes, it does take a time to get a tenant out. But it remains that OP could be facing a possession hearing sooner than his vendor's tenant, and facing bailiffs too - except I doubt OP would be willing to push it as far.

Remember too that if OP and vendor's tenants both went up against bailiffs, vendor's tenants would probably be rehoused by the council, whereas OP may well be regarded as having made himself intentionally homeless, having put in his own notice.

bf206

DVardysShadow wrote: »

The way the contract is constructed, there is no penalty on the vendor for not being able to complete. Absolutely none, do you hear?

This is because the contract only specifies a completion date on you - - there is none specified on the vendor.

So there is no pressure you can apply on the vendor apart from the loss of his sale, which his is aware of anyway. Not rescinding leaves him in the happy position of being able to take his time to deal with his tenants and you in the unhappy position of your Landlord possibly actually selling.

To maintain cooperation with you Landlord, you are practically compelled to cooperate with viewings - and not to derail them either. Now once he makes his sale to a certain point, do you think he is going to let you remain, knowing what a tenant can do? He already has your notice, so wonderful position, he does not have to wait 2 months for a S21 notice to take effect - 1 month after he got your notice, you are right out of notice altogether and he can go straight to court.

Do not underestimate how vulnerable you now are in your current place.

And I thought you were trying to cheer me up!

I won't quote the contract but at length but it does specify that vendor and buyer agree to a completion date of x. Just that then if vacant possession isn't available on that day, the vendor can tell us when it is (with five days' notice) but if it gets to the longstop date, we can withdraw without penalty.

I actually think it helps us that it doesn't specify a get-out for the vendor - no?

DVardysShadow

bf206 wrote: »

And I thought you were trying to cheer me up!

I won't quote the contract but at length but it does specify that vendor and buyer agree to a completion date of x. Just that then if vacant possession isn't available on that day, the vendor can tell us when it is (with five days' notice) but if it gets to the longstop date, we can withdraw without penalty.

I actually think it helps us that it doesn't specify a get-out for the vendor - no?

I would love to cheer you up. But I fear that telling you what you want to hear today to make you happy will actually discourage you from thinking it thorough and realising what steps you need to take now to ensure that you have a roof over your head in 2 months time.

It does specify a getout for the vendor. And you have quoted it. And I have highlighted it. Normally a sale contract specifies a penalty for not completing. Now you tell me what circumstances need to arise for a penalty to be enforceable against the vendors. About the only circumstance I can see is that the tenants do give vacant possession after the specified completion date and the vendor does not tell you. If Vacant possession is given and you don't complete within 5 days then you are the ones paying a penalty.

jjlandlord

From my non-expert knowledge, there is no way to withdraw a notice to quit.
However the landlord can grant a new tenancy. This can occur as simply as accepting rent from the tenant after the notice to quit has expired.

DVardysShadow

jjlandlord wrote: »

From my non-expert knowledge, there is no way to withdraw a notice to quit.

I think a court would take a pragmatic view that it could be withdrawn by mutual agreement. So if LL had written to T saying 'Your notice of quitting is agreed to be withdrawn", I cannot see a court then granting possession to a LL on the strength of T's same notice of quitting. But if the LL merely wrote "OK I accept you cannot complete on your notice of quitting for the time being", the outcome would be far from certain.

Poppy9

Re the non moving tenants. Are they are looking to buy (any house) or if they are looking to move again into Rental won't being "evicted" work against them for getting a new tenancy as they won't have decent references?

I recently had a delay in a purchase and my mortgage offer was due to expire. My solicitor informed them of the delay and they extended it no problem by another 3 months. A mortgage offer should not be a problem unless your employment/income circumstances have changed.

jjlandlord

DVardysShadow wrote: »

I think a court would take a pragmatic view that it could be withdrawn by mutual agreement. So if LL had written to T saying 'Your notice of quitting is agreed to be withdrawn", I cannot see a court then granting possession to a LL on the strength of T's same notice of quitting. But if the LL merely wrote "OK I accept you cannot complete on your notice of quitting for the time being", the outcome would be far from certain.

It's "notice to quit".
What I mentioned is what I read from legally trained people. Not being trained in legal matters I would not make hypotheses on what a court would do.

In any case, if tenant remains after the notice's expiry and landlord accepts rent then the issue is resolved.

DVardysShadow

jjlandlord wrote: »

It's "notice to quit".
What I mentioned is what I read from legally trained people. Not being trained in legal matters I would not make hypotheses on what a court would do.

In any case, if tenant remains after the notice's expiry and landlord accepts rent then the issue is resolved.

You might think so. So T tells LL to quit? Probably not. T gives LL notice of quitting. As I did not capitalise it, it is ordinary use of language and I think it stands as correct

bf206

The agent tells us they've been looking at buying (they did have another place to sell first, not sure if they have) but obv in the current timeframe, we hope they're looking at rentals!!!

No way of knowing whether they're actively doing either, of course...

That's encouraging re the mortgage. Will clearly help us if we can get the offer extended. Plus it looks like our landlords here should give us some flexibility.