Landlord wants to sell early in tennancy

Moot

Hi all

I am 5 months into a 12 month tennancy and my landlord is planning to put the house up for sale at the end of the month.

We were aware that they would eventually want to sell, which is fine, but we did not expect it to be this soon.

The landlord has offered us a one off payment of £100 as compensation. But I don't believe that is enough for what could be up to 6 months of viewings till the end of our lease (houses are selling slowly in our area) If it were £100 per month whilst viewings were ongoing then I may consider it.

We are not comfortable with this as our last landlord put our house up for sale and we had lots of problems with estate agents walking into the property without permission.

I have checked our tennancy agreement and there is no mention of the landlord selling the property. The only thing mentioned is that we are supposed to let potential buyers view it with reasonable notice.

This is not a rant against the landlord as she seems nice and we get on fine. However it feels she is asking a lot from us, considering we are not yet half way through the contract.

We are not sure what to do and any advice is welcome.

Thanks

jjlandlord

it were £100 per month whilst viewings were ongoing then I may consider it.

So offer to be cooperative but only on that condition...

agrinnall

It's not enough. I'd give the LL 3 options:

1) As you suggest, reduce the rent by an amount acceptable to you until the end of the tenancy.

2) Offer to leave the property early if the LL pays any fees that you incur in finding another property to rent.

3) Tell the LL that you are not prepared to allow any internal viewing of the property until the final month of the tenancy (and maybe not even then if you don't want to). Whatever it says in the tenancy agreement you can't be forced to give up your right to peaceful enjoyment of the property. If necessary change the locks to prevent unauthorised access - retain the old locks so that you can replace them when you leave.

jjlandlord

agrinnall wrote: »

Whatever it says in the tenancy agreement you can't be forced to give up your right to peaceful enjoyment of the property.

quiet enjoyment does not mean being able to refuse access if it is agreed in contract, and reasonably implemented...

G_M

jjlandlord wrote: »

quiet enjoyment does not mean being able to refuse access if it is agreed in contract, and reasonably implemented...

however if you made clear in writing you were not willing to allow disruption to your quiet enjoyment, the landlord would need to obtain a court order to enforce viewings - which he would be unlikely to apply for, and if he did, may or may not receive from a court.

The reality is that most buyers (other than other landlords) will be put off purchasing or even making offers on a property occupied by tenants. This forum regularly has stories of sales being delayed by tenants not vacating as anticipated, or buyers pulling out through fear of this.

The LL would be far better off compensating you (adequately!) for surrendering your tenancy early, and then having an empty property to place on the market.

£100 is inadequate for 7 months disruption to your lives.

For you to find a new property if you surrendered the tenancy early would cost you in time, stress, agency admin fee, credit vetting fee, moving costs etc. Do the maths and make the LL an offer.

jjlandlord

G_M wrote: »

however if you made clear in writing you were not willing to allow disruption to your quiet enjoyment, the landlord would need to obtain a court order to enforce viewings.

this is debatable because viewings are not necessarily a breach of quiet enjoyment, and tenant cannot unilaterally decide to opt out of the contract.
However, obviously a landlord should tread carefully.

Moot

Thanks for the replies.

Interesting that the broad agreement is that LL is asking too much from us. I forgot to mention in my previous post that we also have a 1 year-old and a busy work schedule meaning weekdays would be pretty much out of the question if we wanted to be at home during any viewings.

As for the early release option that is mentioned I would imagine that is a no go as she has stressed in her first approach that the property being empty is a worst case scenario. So I believe she is highly unlikely to agree to that. Also we really like the house and are not really in a rush to move before our contract ends, and we are sick of moving in recent years.

So it seems the options are to veto the landlords approach in a diplomatic manner. Or make a compromise but ask for a price that suits us and allow them to come into the house when we are not home, which I am not too comfortable with. Not sure which way to go.

Yorkie1

Assuming there is no break clause at 6 months, you are entitled to stay there for 12 months - and are in fact bound to pay rent for 12 months. I agree with the others that £100 for up to 7 months' ongoing uncertainty, imminent viewings, having to live in a show house, is completely unacceptable. Your LL is frankly wanting to have her cake - with triple chocolate frosting - and to eat it.

I agree with G_M's post.

Callie22

jjlandlord wrote: »

this is debatable because viewings are not necessarily a breach of quiet enjoyment, and tenant cannot unilaterally decide to opt out of the contract.
However, obviously a landlord should tread carefully.

Fair enough the tenant can't, but isn't that what the LL is trying to do, at least partially? Sign tenant up for 12 months, no break clause, put house on market five months in, expect tenant to stay till the bitter end and put up with unlimited viewings/surveys/hassle in that time, for £100? Doesn't seem fair to me at all ...

Kynthia

I'm a landlord and I think it's disgusting. You and your landlord have signed a contract giving you possesion of the property for a year in return for an agreed amount of money. Potentially seven months of viewings, disruption and intrusion is not reasonable at all. If you rented the property knowing the landlord was thinking of selling then I think you should be a little more reasonabe than if you didn't know.

It's up to you how you want to play this but I would politely write to the landlord now stating that you will only allow access to the property when you are present. If you subsequently have any reason to suspect this isn't being abided by then I would change the locks, but be prepared to change them back when you leave.

Then think about what you want to achieve. What is the best outcome you think you can negotiate?

Do you want to refuse all access for the remainder of your fixed term? This will probably destroy your relationship with your landlord but is doable and the landlord should have considered this when renting out the property while thinking of selling in the near future. Do you want to agree a discount in the rent for the time you are allowing viewings? This won't be a massive percentage but I would imagine the more frequently you allow viewings the bigger then discount. Do you want to restrict viewings greatly to minimise the disruption, maybe to just one morning at the weekend?

When you know what you want put a proposal in writing.

property.advert

We don't know what the OP's rent is. If it is £2000 a month then £100 is pathetic but if the rent is £200 a month, it is more realistic.