buying from the estate agent you rent from

tuftyclub

Hi

Has anyone (Well I am sure someone must have) had any experience with buying a house through the same estate agency that they are renting from.

How would you advise me to handle this?. I have an stable tenancy,so I am not that worried about them trying to chuck me out, but it does seem slightly awkward to me. I am hoping to move around Jan/Feb which is obviously not going to be a great time for re-letting a property, and I certainly don’t want them to attempt to remarket in advance as even though I hope to move soon – it could be 6 weeks. It could be 6 months,etc.

I don’t plan to make it obvious to them – or even refer to it in any way – but as a ftb – and I expect they will want my address,so it’s possible they could make the connection . Is this likely? It means they know my salary etc which puts me in a weaker position re offers.


Any advice ? or am I worrying about nothing

thanks

epskie

I work for an estate agent and this happens all of the time Don't worry about it, they will be happy to get the sales fee from the property you buy and the re-let fee from the property you vacate.
Be totally straight with them, it works in your favour really as they can help you sort out timescales etc

G_M

Yes they will want your address.

Whether their sales dept and lettings dept are closely enough linked to make the connection depends on the agency.

You say you have a secure tenancy (so long as you are sure!?) so as you say, no risk of eviction - so why not be upfront with them? Explain you are looking to buy, but will be staying where you are (obviously) until you find somewhere.

As for them 're-marketing' the letting, simply tell them in a friendly way (and follow up in writing) that until you know whether, or when, you will be moving there is no point in them looking for new tenants, and you won't accept viewings.

Or.... use different estate agents. There are plenty around.....

tuftyclub

thanks both. My gut reaction was just to be honest and that's what I will do. I will reread my tenancy agreement though!

In a smallish town where few properties I like come up, so can't blacklist EA's. Entertainingly - at one of the other agencies I actually vaguely know a couple of the staff - again not sure if that's good or bad. I reckon I can turn it to my advantage though

thanks again

Annisele

I suspect OP knows this, but for the benefit of other readers a secure tenancy is a fairly technical term in English law. As G_M implies, they're fairly rare.

Sometimes secure tenancies can be pretty valuable, so think carefully before you give one up to buy something.

tuftyclub

Yes, I meant a secure in the dictionary way, sorry if I misled!

G_M

tuftyclub wrote: »

Yes, I meant a secure in the dictionary way, sorry if I misled!

Now we are all confused even more.

What dictionary are you using and how does it define 'secure tenancy'???

It is the legal definition that matters.

A legal dictionary, Wikkipedia, Oxford Dict, childrens colour dictionary will all have different definitions!

I suggest you use Shelter's easy-to-use tenancy-checker here.

Annisele

I'm afraid "stable tenancy" is no clearer to me - I've never even heard of one of those.

I suspect you mean that you have an assured shorthold tenancy, and that you don't think your landlord is going to want you to leave. If that's right, then my next question would be whether you're still in the fixed term.

I'm sorry to get technical on you, but it's difficult to be helpful unless we know your position.

If I say "all is well; just give one rental period's notice in January and you'll be fine", I'll be horribly wrong if there's 18 months left on your fixed term. In that case, you'd be liable to pay rent on your current place for 18 more months regardless of when you buy. I'll similarly be wrong if it turns out you're in Scotland; rules are (very!) different up there.

tuftyclub

Sorry, I meant stable in a non legal definition. Just as an expression to mean I've been there for a few years, and have never had any problem from the landlord or letting agency. My tenacy is periodic assured shorthold.

Does that change the advice, would I be advised to keep quiet. They are a fairly big agency who seem to pride themself on professionalism

thanks.
thanks

AlexMac

I can't see a problem. As a landlord with just 2 rental flats, I'm perfectly cool about a good tenant who's paid on time for a 'few years' leaving me to buy- good luck to 'em. And while it will take you a few months to buy a house from offer to completion, it should only take a decent agent a few weeks to re-let your existing place, especially if it's a decent property.

Think about the timing of your formal 1-month notice, however; I'd wait til your purchase is well advanced. I'd hope that given your relationship you'd be given some leeway over your moving date if for any reason your completion slipped (as it does). If you were to give the landlord too much notice in the interests of mistaken courtesy you'd hope he wouldn't then get piquey and turf you out with 2 months notice -as he could... but ... he is in it for the money...

G_M

tuftyclub wrote: »

Sorry, I meant stable in a non legal definition. Just as an expression to mean I've been there for a few years, and have never had any problem from the landlord or letting agency. My tenacy is periodic assured shorthold.

Does that change the advice, would I be advised to keep quiet. They are a fairly big agency who seem to pride themself on professionalism

thanks.
thanks

Yes it changes the advice. Whether yor tenancy is actually secure or not has major implications. Just because you "have never had any problem from the landlord or letting agency." does not mean they will do/accept/agree to everything you want in the future!

I assume by " periodic assured shorthold." you mean AST (Assured Shorthold Tenancy) which has passed its initial Fixed Term and is now Periodic?

Do you pay rent monthly?

Assuming all the above is correct, you are 'secure' for between 2 and 3 months as this is the notice period the LL has to give you. Read this post here. It also explains what notice you have to give the LL.

If your Periodic AST is 6 monthly (for example) then the notice periods by each side are longer!