When to give tenant notice during house sale?

kissprudence

I own a house which I lived in myself from 2003 to 2012. I currently rent it out to a family friend and she has been there since November 2013. She is currently on a rolling contract with one month notice needing to be given by either parties to end the tenancy agreement. I intend to put the house on the market in March or April 2017. I have been straight up with my tenant and she knows that I intend to sell in Spring next year. She is of course free to give me notice any time she likes. Conversely, I cannot really afford for her to move out and have no rental income covering the mortgage and have to pay full council tax for an empty property until it sells.

If you were in my situation, at what stage would you give notice to the tenant? The day of exchange would be too late in my opinion as I would have to honour her right to be there for a full month and this could !!!! off my buyer if completion is likely to be achieved earlier. I am loathe to ask her to move out earlier though as I've heard first hand several stories lately about the purchase falling through a couple of days before exchange. I'm then right back to square one with a vacant house on which I have to foot the mortgage and council tax until another buyer comes along.

This is all assuming I can actually sell the house given Brexit!

Help! Advice please :-)

Pixie5740

If it's a SPT then as the landlord you are required to give the tenant 2 rental periods of notice (assuming rent is paid monthly). Your notice doesn't end the tenancy it's just notice that you might go to court to get an eviction order. Really you ought to serve notice before you start to market the property. A lot of buyers will be put off by having to wait for tenants to be evicted.

See Ending/Renewing an AST for further information.

Caz3121

assuming buyers wish to view the property before purchasing it is worth noting the tenant does not need to allow viewings so you have a couple of options
Market the property once tenant has left - gives you the issues around council tax etc
Issue notice and see if your tenant will agree to viewings possibly in return for a reduced rent during that period and hope for a quick sale

kazwookie

Also once you have issued notice, that is no guarantee that she will leave on the given date, you may have to get an eviction notice that can be another couple of months.

fairy_lights

Either you give her notice before putting the house on the market, so you can carry out viewings etc at your leisure, but risk having a period with no rental income before it sells. Or you can serve notice later but possibly not be able to access for viewings at times you want and put potential buyers off because of the possibility of complications if the tenant won't leave.
You can't have your cake and eat it.

thesaint

How long will it take to sell the property?

If you need vacant possession on the 1st June, then give notice to expire at the end of Jan, and start possession proceedings on the 1st Feb 2017.

There are 67 variables of what could happen though.

kissprudence

Thanks for everyone's advice so far. I had thought about offering reduced rent during the period which it is on the market as a sweetener in return for regular access for viewings (of course, with 24 hours notice). It seems from the above that the response seems to be that I should serve notice before I even intend to sell. £600 a month is just a lot of money to find to cover an empty property until it sells when I have rent to pay for where I live currently (cannot move back into owned property as too far from work). I've been burnt previously as it was on the market for 12 months 2011-2012 with five viewers and not even an offer :-( I realise this was the trough of the market but still......

CIS

Council Tax is one of those things that can be a PITA when you're trying to figure it all out.

Craig

Pixie5740

Was 2011/2012 the trough of the market? Price it correctly and it will sell quickly.

kissprudence

jondav - thanks for your comment, I am trying to do right by my tenant as she is a family friend and we have a very good landlord-tenant relationship. If she decides that she wants to move out earlier than I intend to sell the house then my hand will be forced and I will have to put it on the market earlier than intended. I am trying to imagine how unsettling it would be for her if I just served her two months notice without any prior warning which is why we have already had a frank conversation about my intentions to sell.

kissprudence

"Price it correctly" - it was valued by three EAs as being worth around £95k in 2011 so that's what I put it on at. No joy after 3 months so I dropped the price to £88k. This brought three viewers but none of them serious. I was going to drop further until my mum (who used to be an EA) said "STOP! You are practically giving it away". Next door was vacant for 10 months in 2011-2012 and sold for a measly £80k as they were desperate. The buyers just weren't out there.......