Moving into a property before exchange or completion!!!!

phoebe1989seb

witchy1066 wrote: »

not a reply to OP but an observation only,

this seems to be coming a more common practice , my son did it last year and I have heard of a neighbours aunt moving into the house she was buying weeks before completion,

I personally wouldn't be comfortable with it,
although my vender has said he is moving out as soon as we have exchanged ,

A few years back we were also offered the *opportunity* to do this - we were buying the house (currently arranged as four flats) privately, we had exchanged on our own sale but two of the tenants occupying flats in the property had refused to leave and the (rather dodgy, I have to say) vendor was going through the eviction (court/bailiff) process.

There was no mortgage involved and as there looked to be a delay of around a month from our sale completing and the vendor achieving vacant possession (plus we had a four bed house full of furniture etc to put somewhere), he offered us the option of moving into one of the vacant flats and storing our belongings in the other.

Common sense and the advice of our solicitor led us to decline, but AFAIK there is certainly nothing illegal about doing this.......in our case we considered it completely inadvisable, especially as the tenants still in situ were not exactly inclined to welcome us with open arms

Instead we chose the more costly (but less risky) option of putting our stuff into storage and moving in with my parents - living with them for six weeks was a strain, but somewhat safer, lol!