House buying question

BohemianRhapsody

Hi,

We are in the process of selling our house and buying a new one. We are now under offer and are interested in a specific house which still has tenants living in it. When I asked the EA about the timing of exchange & completion, I was told that the landlord will not serve them with the relevant letter asking them to leave until after the exchange is done. Now I understand why he would like to do it but that would put us in a very risky situation because we would have exchanged but would still have tenants in the house with no guarantees on when they will be leaving. I will of course ask our solicitor, who I think would not allow it to happen in any case, but would be interested in your views. Thanks.

bouicca21

Vendor is an idiot. You won’t get a mortgage on a place unless the tenants are out at time of exchange.

diggingdude

look for another house if that is their plan

Hutch100uk

Vendor is just a money grabber. Hoping for rent right up to exchange. Tell him the deal is off then. Too risky.

davidmcn

bouicca21 wrote: »

You won’t get a mortgage on a place unless the tenants are out at time of exchange.

The lender won't care what the position is at the time of exchange - all they require is vacant possession at completion. How everybody else achieves that is up to them.

GrumpyDil

Given the potential issues involved I would look elsewhere.

If the landlord plans to give notice at exchange it would mean at least two months between exchange and completion (possibly more depending upon the details of the AST with the tenants).

The consequences of the tenants failing to move out on time would be significant and not somewhere you would want to go.

And that's from someone who holds his hands up to having sold a house with tenants where I exchanged with them in situ. They were friends but even so that got a little stressful and isn't something I would do again.

AnotherJoe

What Bouicca said, the LL is utterly clueless. The notice is just the start of a process that could take up to a year if the initial notice has any technical issues. And if the tenants are looking to move into social housing they won't be able to move until the full legal process has been gone through so they will refuse to leave.
If this isa really nice "dream house" then tell the EA you'll keep looking and when the tenants have left you'll start the legalities, otherwise just treat this like any other house that had an insurmountable problem with it and move on, since it will no doubt take a very long time for the penny to drop with the seller., perhaps several failed attempts. Or maybe he's looking to sell to a LL and a private buyer, you, just happened along.

BohemianRhapsody

Thanks all for sharing your thoughts. It's much appreciated. This has just confirmed what we felt and feared, i.e. that this is going to be a very bumpy ride and potentially too risky to contemplate.

Sadly, it is a 'dream house' in the sense that it ticks most of the boxes (location, size, schools etc). But it's at the very top end of our budget. And now this issue with the tenants. In addition, there are very few properties coming into the market in our area of interest so this leaves us in a difficult position. the buyer for our house is an investor who wants to exchange in 7-8 weeks which is putting extra pressure on us to find something suitable soon. Also, in order to apply for the local schools in the new area, we need to have a registered address there, ideally by August, which is another time pressure.

AnotherJoe

BohemianRhapsody wrote: »

Thanks all for sharing your thoughts. It's much appreciated. This has just confirmed what we felt and feared, i.e. that this is going to be a very bumpy ride and potentially too risky to contemplate.

Sadly, it is a 'dream house' in the sense that it ticks most of the boxes (location, size, schools etc). But it's at the very top end of our budget. And now this issue with the tenants. In addition, there are very few properties coming into the market in our area of interest so this leaves us in a difficult position. the buyer for our house is an investor who wants to exchange in 7-8 weeks which is putting extra pressure on us to find something suitable soon. Also, in order to apply for the local schools in the new area, we need to have a registered address there, ideally by August, which is another time pressure.

Its more than an issue. Its like a brick wall with spikes in it. :eek:

Why dont you sell and rent for a year whilst you look.

Its not as if house prices are rocketing up.

eddddy

BohemianRhapsody wrote: »

When I asked the EA about the timing of exchange & completion, I was told that the landlord will not serve them with the relevant letter asking them to leave until after the exchange is done.

In similar circumstances, I just told the seller to seek their solicitor's advice on that.

The seller then changed their mind.

(Realistically, the seller would be taking a much bigger risk than the buyer, if they exchanged contracts with the tenants in-situ.)

Marvel1

No chance, landlord serving section 21 does not mean the tenets have to leave, only a court can evict.