Bought a house - now tenant wont move out

missile

You thought you were getting a bargain, perhaps you have learned to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Your uncles & friend took advantage of your greed.

My sympathy is with the tenant, who perhaps belatedly realised they were being stitched up. Realised they have rights as a tenant and decided to exercise them.

G_M

The OP can blame his conveyancer, who really should have stressed the importance of vacant possession on Completion. and ideally vacant before Exchange.

But really the blame lies with the OP himself who seems to have pushed the purchase through even to the extent of deceiving his mortgage lender.

OP - you are now a landlord:

* is the tenant paying you rent? If yes, you need to declare it to HMRC

* if not, you're in luck! Serve a S8 Notice immediately to evict for rent arrears. Read
* Ending/renewing an AST: what happens when a fixed term ends? How can a LL or tenant end a tenancy? What is a periodic tenancy?

* Otherwise you need to serve a S21 Notice which must be valid. There are 100 ways in which it might NOT be valid, so read this:
S21 checklist (Is a S21 valid?)


* you also need to comply with all landlord obligations, so read this:

* New landlords: advice, information & links

AdrianC

Rosemary7391 wrote: »

Is that not a nice way of saying fraud...?

Well, I didn't use that word.

But it would seem obvious that the solicitor certainly can't have told the lender the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth...

And the OP was certainly aware of the true position...

And receiving a substantial amount of money from a lender who has been deliberately placed under a substantial misapprehension as to their security for the loan may quite easily be viewed as meeting the requirements to be viewed as a criminal fraud - false representation (section 2, Fraud Act 2006) seems the most apposite variant, although abuse of position (section 4) may fit the solicitor rather better... And I'm sure the partners in the practice may be at pains to stress they were not party (section 12)...

https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/fraud-act-2006#a07
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/35/contents

So... I leave it as an exercise for the [STRIKE]CPS[/STRIKE] reader.

davidmcn

AdrianC wrote: »

But it would seem obvious that the solicitor certainly can't have told the lender the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth...

I think it more likely that the solicitor wasn't told the whole truth. They've got precious little to gain by misleading the lender.

csgohan4

economical with the truth perhaps


OP you got yourself in this mess and you need to get yourself out, follow the advice above


But your going to waiting months before you get your property back

xylophone

But really the blame lies with the OP himself who seems to have pushed the purchase through even to the extent of deceiving his mortgage lender.

Has the OP actually stated that he has a mortgage? I know that he mentions his bank but I am not sure whether this is because the bank is the mortgagee or for some other reason.

The OP does state that he instructed a "lawyer" (solicitor?) in connection with the purchase and it seems he told this individual that the property was to be for his own occupation.

I simply cannot understand how a solicitor acting for a client buying with a residential mortgage could accept anything other than vacant possession.


Even if the OP paid cash, how could any competent solicitor who knew that his client was buying for his own occupation

not state anything about making sure the tenants moved out before completion

Is the solicitor guilty of professional negligence?

davidmcn

xylophone wrote: »

Is the solicitor guilty of professional negligence?

Hard to know whether anything we've been told is true, but it sounds like the OP convinced themselves that the tenants would be gone in good time, and probably told the solicitor the same thing. And then failed to mention by the time it came to completion that the property probably wasn't going to be vacant after all.

The OP knew more than the solicitor about the occupancy of the property so it's hardly the solicitor's fault for failing to point out that someone else is living in the house...solicitors never pop round to check the property is actually vacant.

G_M

davidmcn wrote: »

.... hardly the solicitor's fault for failing to point out that someone else is living in the house...solicitors never pop round to check the property is actually vacant.

They don't? I thought that was part of the job. Along with checking the garden fences and boundaries actually correspond to the Land Registry Plan, and the pavement actually has a dropped curb leading to the driveway............


If that is not what they do, what on earth is the point of a conveyancer......?

[Deleted User]

lol from my one experience of buying a property, the conveyancer, if you are lucky makes a personal appearance at the initial meeting and then hides for the rest of the process, signs the paperwork as checked by themselves, when in reality its done by the overworked secretary with lots of experience but little legal training, and no ability to check things.

Hence rapid phone calls on the day of exchange between my solicitor, the vendor and the mortgage company when I was expected to hand over 10% deposit rather than 5%, clearly stated in the summary the firm sent to us but not in the final contract. I just had to hope there was a lot of sweat equity in the office. There certainly was in our home.

I suspect you need to employ one conveyancer to do the transactions, and another to check what the first is doing, or train yourself up pretty damn quick.

FreeBear

G_M wrote: »

TBut really the blame lies with the OP himself who seems to have pushed the purchase through even to the extent of deceiving his mortgage lender.

OP - you are now a landlord:

* is the tenant paying you rent? If yes, you need to declare it to HMRC

Isn't there a higher stamp duty to pay on rental properties ?
In which case, HM.gov will be expecting another chunk of money from the OP..