Property is tenanted after vacant possession purchase! Please help!

duchy

First question surely is what basis the tenant is renting as.
Lodger, tenant.....what paperwork do they have to prove they are entitled to be there -eg rental agreement. Were they renting direct from the LL or through an agency. These are all things the solicitor needs to know so for speed if you can find out today it may help resolution.

marksoton

This is why wherever possible you should inspect the property on ( Or as near to) the exchange day.

At least then you know if you're getting what you thought you paid for..

chilli1

Its my sons first home purchase, i helped with a deposit.
The tenants been there for ten years, he tells me a notice has been served but he needs a court order to be housed.
We just left him in the flat in peace, as i can not see its his fault.
where is he to go with a small child.
The seller has some explaining to do.

chilli1

No wind up, never had this happen before or even heard of it.
The contract was for vacant possession.

marksoton

chilli1 wrote: »

Its my sons first home purchase

Then he is about to learn a very big lesson the very hard way.

Winter_Phoenix

Celifein wrote: »

If he knew it was tenanted and wanted vacant possession, why didn't he ensure the property was vacant before exchange? Or at least before completion? For that matter, why did his solicitor allow him to exchange and complete without someone bothering to check if the tenant had gone? You must understand how far-fetched this sounds?

It doesn't sound at all far-fetched to me. It sounds like a first-time buyer who trusted the seller's word when he said something like, 'There's a tenant in there at the moment, but he'll be long gone before you want to move in, of course he will, I guarantee that.'

And then when the first-time buyer - just to keep his solicitor happy - rang the seller to check that the property was now vacant, he was told, 'Yeah, yeah, they moved out last Friday, no problem, it'a all yours.'

Innys1

This thread raises an interesting point though, does it not?

How many buyers check there has been no change in occupation between an offer being accepted, exchange and completion?

I certainly never have.

chilli1

The Estate Agent, probably the biggest in the market and seller said it was sold with vacant possession.
In hind sight a final check may have been wise, but is the contract and solicitors , agents obligation not any guarantee?

Miss_Samantha

If informed that a property is tenanted, any solicitor will advise not to exchange before the tenant has left and to check that the property is vacant before exchanging.

If they don't, they are breaching their duty of care and advice.

In addition, in such scenario there may be a couple of months between the offer being accepted and the tenant leaving so it is in any case a good idea to inspect the property again to check that everything is still fine with it before exchanging.

iammumtoone

Winter_Phoenix wrote: »

And then when the first-time buyer - just to keep his solicitor happy - rang the seller to check that the property was now vacant, he was told, 'Yeah, yeah, they moved out last Friday, no problem, it'a all yours.'

But shouldn't the buyer solicitors contacted the vendors solicitors to ask this question?

Long time ago since I purchased my house but I recall all questions/queries were asked between solicitors (presumably in case anything went wrong, there was an official paper trail) I was never asked to contact the seller to ask a question direct and any seller questions came via my solicitor.