Rent the house I'm buying before completion?

mapcr77

Hi,

I'm buying a house the other side of the country as we're moving because of work. Everything seems to be going ok, but we haven't got a completion date yet, but I do have a start date on my new job. Rather than staying in a hotel, travelling on weekends and still keeping my rented place down south, I was wondering if it would be ok to propose to the vendor to rent the house for a short period (up until exchange and completion).
The house is vacant and was rented before, so he's a registered landlord and all is ok on that end.
Has anyone done this before? Any advice?
Thanks!

tim123456789

It's OK for you to ask, but vendors in this position are usually advised to say no.

You may get lucky and find one who isn't so advised.

agrinnall

As tim says, you would be fortunate to find anyone who would allow this. The problem for the seller is that if while you are a tenant you decide to pull out of buying the property, not only can he not sell to anyone else until you have left the property, you might decide not to leave at the end of your tenancy, forcing the seller to incur the costs of getting you evicted.

Werdnal

Vendor would be very unwise to allow this - their mortgage would not agree, their insurance would be void, they would need a GSC if there is gas at the property, they would have to declare the rent you pay them for tax - and if anything goes wrong, the purchase can still fall through.

Having said that, seems most of the risk is with the vendor, so if they are happy to take the chance ...

cayennepepper

Very unlikely, for a start their solicitor would advise them not to, for the reasons listed by the previous posters. Especially since you have not exchanged yet. I know I would not allow that if I were your Vendor.

mapcr77

Thanks to all. I understand the risk for the seller that you all point out, so the thing would be how to reassure him that I would not pull out? I'm desperate to get it all sorted asap, so that's the last thing I'd do! Conveyance process has just started, how long does it usually take till completion/exchange?
Thanks again!

Annisele

I don't think you can reassure the seller you won't pull out.

If conveyancing has only just started, you probably don't have all your searches back yet. If you don't have your searches, you don't know if you're going to find anything that will panic your lender (or you), and so you don't know if you're going to actually have finance to buy the place.

It takes as long as it takes - but if there's no chain it should be fairly quick.