Selling house to our tenants

BLOW_FLY

We have just completed on the purchase of our house from the late landlords estate.

From our POV it was a relatively simple and straightforward process, apart from the usual nerve jangling moments during buying. All surveys and other associated things when buying applied.

You probably shouldn't have served the S21 just yet, as by law they will now only have 2 months to move out. What we did with in agreement with the letting agent is write a post dated letter terminating our tenancy from the first of April ending 5th May when completion took place.

Best things about it were neither party had to deal with Estate Agents and their shenanigans. The vendors didn't have to pay agents fees, yes they had to pay a commission to the letting agent but I don't think they begrudged this as she'd been the LA for the house for 12yrs. We didn't incur any moving costs and we shared the same solicitors so split costs there also.

BF

AndyTails

BLOW_FLY wrote: »

You probably shouldn't have served the S21 just yet, as by law they will now only have 2 months to move out.

Load of rubbish. S21 is two months' notice of intention to seek a court order for repossession. The landlord doesn't have to follow through with going to the courts.


Others have said that serving notice isn't necessary. I suspect solicitors and mortgage providers may disagree. From memory of other threads on this forum the issue is that the buyer's mortgage provider wants the property to be sold with vacant possession, i.e. tenants and all belongings moved out before completion, and they therefore require the contract (signed by the vendor) to say they will give vacant possession. In practical terms I can understand that the tenants may not move out, but if they don't, is the OP opening themselves up to legal issues by not providing vacant possession? May be worth asking your solicitor.

saajan_12

At the same time as exchange, you can write an agreement to mutually surrender the tenancy on the date of completion (and agree what happens with the rent / deposit). Then on the day of completion, the tenancy ends and the people in occupation are there as owners and not as tenants.

If they want to sue the vendors for failure to provide vacant posession by arguing the vendor's tenants were still in occupation under the sale contract, then the vendors can sue the buyers/tenants for their costs for failure to vacate per the surrender agreement. Net judgement 0

BLOW_FLY

AndyTails wrote: »

Load of rubbish. S21 is two months' notice of intention to seek a court order for repossession. The landlord doesn't have to follow through with going to the courts.


Others have said that serving notice isn't necessary. I suspect solicitors and mortgage providers may disagree. From memory of other threads on this forum the issue is that the buyer's mortgage provider wants the property to be sold with vacant possession, i.e. tenants and all belongings moved out before completion, and they therefore require the contract (signed by the vendor) to say they will give vacant possession. In practical terms I can understand that the tenants may not move out, but if they don't, is the OP opening themselves up to legal issues by not providing vacant possession? May be worth asking your solicitor.

Hhmmmmm now who's talking rubbish.....

You 'suspect' wrong, having just gone through this exact process I can inform you the question of vacant possession never came up once, not from our lender or solicitor.

That said other lenders might do things differently.

BF

Guest101

Vacant possession: the right of a purchaser to exclusive use of a property on completion of the sale, any previous occupant having moved out.


Therefore no need to surrender, serve notice or any other nonsense.




There's no harm, but just saying

luckypotato

I think there's been a little bit of confusion. We served notice notifying the tenants that the final day of the tenancy will be the last day of the 12 month AST in August. The S21 is valid for 6 months. We did it to give them plenty of notice in case they didn't want to buy and wanted to find another property to rent. However they now do want to buy our house which is great for both parties.

They were happy with this and us giving them plenty of notice. We aren't asking them the leave in two months. If the house sale completes prior to August then obviously the house is theirs!

We have boiler certificate/gas safety stuff relevant to the tenancy also.

Hoping it all goes smoothly.

BLOW_FLY

luckypotato wrote: »

I think there's been a little bit of confusion. We served notice notifying the tenants that the final day of the tenancy will be the last day of the 12 month AST in August. The S21 is valid for 6 months. We did it to give them plenty of notice in case they didn't want to buy and wanted to find another property to rent. However they now do want to buy our house which is great for both parties.

They were happy with this and us giving them plenty of notice. We aren't asking them the leave in two months. If the house sale completes prior to August then obviously the house is theirs!

We have boiler certificate/gas safety stuff relevant to the tenancy also.

Hoping it all goes smoothly.

In which case you should have plenty of time to get it all sorted and the sale through hopefully relatively hassle free :T

BF