Selling a rented house

gazfocus

I've got a house that I rent out (have done for around 3 years now), and it's time to sell up. I can't realistically afford big repair bills should anything need doing, and as much as I want to keep the house, I believe the best thing to do is to sell up and move on.

The tenant in the house at present was originally on a 6 month AST, but despite him asking for a new longer term tenancy agreement, which I gave him, it was never signed by me nor him, so he is on a periodic tenancy.

My concern is, that when I tell him I need to sell the house, one of three things will happen. He will either stay put and keep paying rent (refusing to move), Move out quite quickly, or will just stop paying the rent and refuse to go. I do not think he will co-operate at all.

So, I'm looking for advice from people that have been in similar situations and have had to sell a house that's currently tenanted. What's the best way to approach the situation with the tenant? My initial thought was offering a financial incentive to get them to co-operate, but is this the best way to do it?

Bob_Bank_Spanker_2

Yes - a financial incentive is the best approach if the tenant is non-cooperative. Realistically, if they don't play ball they can be in place for 6 months plus and drag you through court. Just make sure everything is signed this time!

MyOnlyPost

You can sell the house tenanted, this restricts your buyers to people looking for investment properties. Or you can give the tenant notice and if he refuses to go you then need to go through the legal process of getting your property back. Only then can you realistically advertise it for sale.

If you cannot afford a large repair bill, can you afford to spruce it up after the tenant moves out to make it prime for buyers?

gazfocus

Bob_Bank_Spanker wrote: »

Yes - a financial incentive is the best approach if the tenant is non-cooperative. Realistically, if they don't play ball they can be in place for 6 months plus and drag you through court. Just make sure everything is signed this time!

Yeah, them not playing ball is my main concern...luckily for me though, their original tenancy has a guarantor agreement attached to it, so if they dont pay, I can persue their guarantor.

gazfocus

MyOnlyPost wrote: »

You can sell the house tenanted, this restricts your buyers to people looking for investment properties. Or you can give the tenant notice and if he refuses to go you then need to go through the legal process of getting your property back. Only then can you realistically advertise it for sale.

If you cannot afford a large repair bill, can you afford to spruce it up after the tenant moves out to make it prime for buyers?

For a number of reasons, selling the house to an investor isn't really an option. I will be speaking to the tenant over the next week or so, so will see what he says, but not looking forward to the conversation.

Cakeguts

Ask the tenant if he would like to buy the property.

Guest101

If the tenant asked for a new fixed term and you agreed then a new fixed term may well exist.

Signing a piece of paper is secondary to this.

getmore4less

Any provisions for increasing the rent in the agreement?

Check your guarantor agreement very carefully might worthless.

getmeouttahere

getmore4less wrote: »

Any provisions for increasing the rent in the agreement?

Check your guarantor agreement very carefully might worthless.

I think the rent is as much as I can realistically expect unfortunately. The guarantor agreement was obtained from the national landlords association so hopefully should be ok.

getmeouttahere

Guest101 wrote: »

If the tenant asked for a new fixed term and you agreed then a new fixed term may well exist.

Signing a piece of paper is secondary to this.

I'm not sure id agree, but regardless, the new tenancy had a pretty flexible get out clause for either party (i.e. Either of us could give two months notice at any point), so only issue would be the guarantor, but I don't see how a newer tenancy can exist if it's not been signed as anyone could print one off and say it is legit.

sparky130a

gazfocus wrote: »

I've got a house that I rent out (have done for around 3 years now), and it's time to sell up. I can't realistically afford big repair bills should anything need doing, and as much as I want to keep the house, I believe the best thing to do is to sell up and move on.

The tenant in the house at present was originally on a 6 month AST, but despite him asking for a new longer term tenancy agreement, which I gave him, it was never signed by me nor him, so he is on a periodic tenancy.

My concern is, that when I tell him I need to sell the house, one of three things will happen. He will either stay put and keep paying rent (refusing to move), Move out quite quickly, or will just stop paying the rent and refuse to go. I do not think he will co-operate at all.

So, I'm looking for advice from people that have been in similar situations and have had to sell a house that's currently tenanted. What's the best way to approach the situation with the tenant? My initial thought was offering a financial incentive to get them to co-operate, but is this the best way to do it?

So follow the correct legal procedure.

I trust you do know what that is...?