buying a house which currently has a tenant in...

G_M

There is no 'right' answer

Leigh1987 wrote: »

At what stage do you think it is acceptable both from the landlord's and the buyers point of view, for the property to be empty?

If I put an offer in on this house (which is a bit premature since I haven't viewed it yet, but I am keen) I will be making it clear that I will not exchange contracts until the property is vacant. That's my minimum condition.if getting a mortgage you'll have no choice. The lender will insist on this anyway

If you are willing to wait, potentially months, for the property to become vacant, then that's fine.

To take it a step further, do you think it's likely that the landlord would be willing to ask the tenants to leave when the offer is accepted (assuming it isn't a long term lease) and so I could wait until it was empty before doing the mortgage application, survey, valuation etc.
Every seller/landlord is different! Some are realistic, some are mad!
If you make an offer, make clear it is conditional on immediate Notice being served on the tenants, AND that you will not instruct a solicitor, or surveyor, or make a mortgage application, till the property is vacant.

Obviously it would be ideal for me if the property is empty before I have spent any money or applied for the mortgage, but from the landlord's point of view the tenant could move out and then the sale could fall through and he's left with no income from that property.

Hence my comment earlier about 'cake and eat it'.
Is buying a house ever easy?!

Nope! Never!

DannyboyMidlands

I wouldn't even bother with the viewing. I think it'll be a big waste of time and possibly money.

lauraland

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

How special/important is this house to you? Is something better likely to come along if you walk away? Maybe it's not the one and you should listen to your head........only you know the answer! Good luck anyway

Many thanks for taking the time to respond and provide advice G_M, I think this house is going to be more hassle than its worth so following my head is probably the best thing to do right now.

The house isn't necessarily 'special' phoebe, its more down to what I can afford and whats available at this point. This house is probably best value for money in one of the areas I most like at the moment, and is exactly the style of house I'm looking for. I'm really hoping that more houses come up for sale after the easter holidays as this particular market is extremely dire at the moment - I think all the ones I viewed are the dregs left over from 2011/2012 that no one else wants to buy :rotfl:

Many thanks for the good luck wishes

tim123456789

A vendor has one of two options.

He markets the property to LLs with tenant in situ

or

He markets the property to OOs on the understanding that the property will be guarenteed vacant before exchange. In which case the only way this works is for Ts to be already under notice before viewings start so that there is a reasonable expectation that the eviction process will have completed before buyer is ready to exchange.

The either/or option of expecting an intending OO to buy the property and evict the tenants after exchange just cannot work because no-one will get a mortgage on this basis.

So the right thing to do is for the vendor to tell you which of the above he is doing.

kkgree1

I'd like to add a positive tale to the many negative.

We bought our house in 2010 when it was tenanted. The owners had moved out two years previously and the tenants had lived there for 18 months when we viewed it.

The tenants at the time were in the process of buying a house 200 miles away and our solicitor made sure they had moved out before we exchanged on the property.

I had heard a lot of scare stories about tenanted properties and expected to have to scrub it from top to bottom. On completion day, the house was immaculate and had been left by the tenants in pristine condition!

I think as long as you go into it with your eyes open, ensure your solicitor is aware of the tenants and try and find out what the tenant's future plans are (if any!) it makes things much easier.

Leigh1987

Just an update. I went to see the house today and really liked it. The couple living there were promised when they started renting it that it wouldn't be sold (it is owned by a lettings company apparently) they were only told it was being sold by the EA when the sign went up. That's a bit of bad form on behalf of the landlords IMO!

They seemed nice and I don't think they'll hold the process up (although I know that sounds naive), they moved from the last property they were renting when it was sold from under them with no warning.