Mortgage advice

spungbob

Bit of a complicated situation but hoping someone may know the first place to start for advice. Myself and my husband currently rent our property from a private landlady who has just advised us that she is wanting to sell the property.

We are not currently in the position to buy as I am on maternity from self employment and my partner is on a low income.

We are looking for an investor to possibly buy the house and take over renting to us but wondered if there are any other options open to us and what our rights are with regards to the landlady selling?

My husband has lived in the property for 4 years but we have not received a new tenancy agreement for this year from April. Does this mean we have less rights?

Any help anyone can provide is greatly appreciated!

Thrugelmir

spungbob wrote: »

what our rights are with regards to the landlady selling?

None its her property to sell. You are merely tenants.

Whether you are allowed to stay or not will depend on who she decides to sell the property to.

bigadaj

A bit disappointed thrug, thats not really helping the OP.

If you originally signed a short hold tenancy agreement, and this hasn't been formally renewed then you normally only have a months notice on your property. However the landlord has to Steve a formal notice and it's a month, or sometimes two months from that date.

You could start to be awkward if you wanted which might buy you some time, eg the landlord has the right to inspect the property periodically with suitable notice, but you wont have to show potential buyers round.

I wold speak to the landlord and explain your situation and see if she could Market it as tenants in place for a new landlord, though if I were her I wouldn't be keen as it does restrict her potential Market.

Thrugelmir

bigadaj wrote: »

A bit disappointed thrug, thats not really helping the OP.

Being in a position of a tenant gives no rights or influence over the decision. A tenant\owner relationship is a business one.

Of course I have empathy with the OP. That doesn't help though.

bigadaj

It's not the lack of empathy, just the lack of useful information that troubled me, by all means have an opinion but provide something practical as well.

Not wanting to have a pop, thought you had 'the j' as your own personal stalker a few days ago!

Annisele

spungbob wrote: »

My husband has lived in the property for 4 years but we have not received a new tenancy agreement for this year from April. Does this mean we have less rights?

I'm first going to make some assumptions - if any of them are wrong, the rest of what I've said will be useless to you.

I think: you live in England or Wales; you or your husband signed an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) over a fixed term that has now expired; and you and your husband are the only people who live in your home (i.e. it's not an HMO and your landlady doesn't live with you).

If I'm right, then you've stayed in the property beyond the expiry of the fixed term - and that means you automatically get a statutory periodic tenancy. Shelter gives information about what that means here.

If your landlady sells to somebody else while you're still in the property, then the somebody else will become your landlord.

If she sells to somebody who doesn't want to be a landlord, then she'll almost certainly have to get you to leave the house before she can exchange contracts. She can *ask* you to leave whenever she wants (just as I could ask you to move out of your house) - but she can't *make* you leave without a court order. The Shelter website gives details of how landlords can evict their tenants, but realistically if she decided tomorrow that she wanted you out it would probably be at least three months before you were forced to go - and possibly much longer than that, depending on how busy your local courts are.

If your landlady had posted here, we'd likely have told her to serve notice on her tenants and then try to sell the property once the tenants had left. That's because it's generally more difficult to sell a property with tenants in than after they've left - anybody buying with a residential mortgage will require vacant possession, and your landlady can't guarantee vacant possession until you've left.

bigadaj

Don't disagree with your advice anniselle but would this be the best approach in the real world?

The OP could delay this and go through the courts, but what chance of a decent reference for the next property in that case. Best to discuss and negotiate initially at least, there have been cases of tenants being paid to move out for the sale to go through.

Annisele

I wasn't intending to advise anything; apologies if it came across that way. I agree that talking to the landlady is almost always the best approach!

spungbob

Thankyou all for your help and advice. We are going to ask the landlady to actually come and see us rather than communicating about the situation via text, which doesn't really give us any idea of her plans.

Thrugelmir

spungbob wrote: »

Thankyou all for your help and advice. We are going to ask the landlady to actually come and see us rather than communicating about the situation via text, which doesn't really give us any idea of her plans.

Suggest you post on the House Buying, Selling, Renting board.

There are experts on that forum regarding tenants rights in the situation you find yourself in.

spungbob

Thanks for info Thrug!will post there now