Short term rent of house that we are purchasing?

SavingWolf

The purchase of our house is dragging on and we are in a position where we need to move out of our current place as our buyer is getting twitchy.

Is it possible to rent the house the house we are going through the motions of purchasing?

Have thought about negotiating on the rental price being knocked off the final purchase price, and the tenancy agreement being setup for x months with cancellation automatic on completion.

There is still the chance the whole thing may not complete due to the unadopted road mentioned on another thread but at least this way the seller will be getting some income while the house is setting empty and it may save us moving into short term let and then into this house in the long run.

Lots of ifs and buts at this stage, I think if we went ahead we wouldn't unpack everything just in case!!

Just looking for feedback on this idea, whether good or bad.

SavingWolf

No problem - it was the sellers estate agents that suggested the idea and we had already thought about it beforehand. Wanted to know if others had done this and any potential issues.

JimmyTheWig

Doing this would totally commit you emotionally to this house. That puts you an a difficult position if there is any reason why you shouldn't buy it.
If it is a case that without a specific piece of paper the mortgage lender is saying "no" then fair enough the decision will be out of your hands.
But if it boils down to you having to make the judgement call as to whether to risk it or not then that is going to be heavily influenced if you are already settled there.

What if after you've sorted everything with the paperwork the vendor turns round and says he wants £x more for it as prices have gone up during the delay? He'll know that you won't want to move again.
He'll be getting rent for you being there. What's to stop him stringing this along for ages then deciding not to sell to you and put it back on the market (where he won't have to drop the price by the rent you have paid)?
Until exchange of contracts, nothing is set in stone and he (or you) can pull out at any time for any (or no) reason.

theartfullodger

Having rented it you will have at least two advantages...
a) You know some more problems that were hidden from you before...
b) You can be a right PIA if you decline to move out when given notice

I'd give it a go then ask for a price reduction after 3 months...

SavingWolf

@Jimmy

As were are currently being faced with moving twice anyway to possibly end up in the one we are trying to buy we aren't too fussed about having to move out in a few months if it doesn't work out.
I don't expect they will try to increase the price as if we pull out any future buyer will be faced with the same issues we are. A small portion of the road is unadopted and our house is on this section.

We are looking at short term house shares and storage to put is in a better position if this house doesn't work out

Lummoxley

We did this in 2005, it was supposed to just be a couple of months but it dragged out to 5 months through no fault of ours or the vendor so it really helped. We negotiated a rent of approx 75% of market rent with the vendor.

We found several faults that we wouldn't have known about and negotiated a £1500 reduction on the sale price, so it worked for us.