buying tenanted flat for living

hi123

hi we had a look at few flats in north greenwich ,need for own living
most of them are tenanted
one which we like is tenanted till sep 2020 but have been assured by letting and sales agent that their is a notice of 2 months break clause in tenancy
owner does not want to give notice till near exchange or wants us to put a non refundable deposit
estate agent tells us this is very common
is it?
should we just forget about this flat,if we do it will rule out most of the flats in the area as hardly any are owner occupied
any suggestions welcome with thanks in advance

bouicca21

I’m sure loads of more knowledgeable people will be along soon to explain just why it takes 3-6 months to remove a tenant.

Bossypants

Seller/landlord can't have his cake and eat it too. Either he demonstrates vacant possession prior to exchange and swallows the associated costs, or he drops the price sufficiently to compensate you for the effort and inconvenience of having to evict his tenants after completion (and considering that that may include you finding somewhere else to live, paying court fees, and any damage the angry tenants might do by accident or out of spite, it had better be a pretty hefty drop!).

Cakeguts

Forget about that flat and look for another. See if you can find one that isn't let. If you can't find one in that area look somewhere else.

Voyager2002

The only way that this could work would be if there were a period of at least two months between exchange and completion. Realistically, the only time you should put down a non-returnable deposit is when you exchange contracts (before then there might be all sorts of reasons why you should not buy the place and so it would be too soon to put down a deposit). One the vendor exchange he is legally committed to handing it over with vacant possession, so if any of the thousand and one things likely to go wrong do in fact go wrong, he has to cover any costs that you incur.

SpiderLegs

Why on earth would anyone pay a non refundable deposit on a house that they may not get possession of for 18 months?

The vendor should be paying you for the hassle of waiting imo.

Move on, this one’s a non-starter.

hi123

SpiderLegs wrote: »

Why on earth would anyone pay a non refundable deposit on a house that they may not get possession of for 18 months?

The vendor should be paying you for the hassle of waiting imo.

Move on, this one’s a non-starter.

from what i gather most flats in north greenwich /canary wharf area are owned by overseas investor who dont seem to mind if it remains on rent or get sold so appears very difficult to negotiate

eddddy

A deposit (non-refundable or otherwise) is very unusual. Why is the EA asking for one in this case?

(Are you a FTB? Some EAs see FTBs as a 'soft-touch' and ask them to do things that they wouldn't dare ask experienced buyers to do - like pay a deposit.)


In many cases, a landlord will serve a section 21 notice and the tenants will leave after 2 months (or sometimes sooner) with no problem.

But occasionally, tenants refuse to leave (for example, if they want the council to rehouse them) - so a court order is needed to evict them, which might take some months.


Either way, both your solicitor and the seller's solicitor will advise their clients not to exchange contracts until the tenants have left.


So there is a risk of a long delay when buying a tenanted property.

When viewing the property, you could ask the tenants whether they are happy to leave 2 months after getting notice. If they're not happy, I suspect that they would tell you - as they'd want to scupper the sale.

(But you can't necessarily rely on what the tenants say - you'd have to use your judgement.)

hi123

not a first time buyer
buying for children to be living in as they are currently renting and working in the area
what i was told is the seller does not want to loose on the rental in case sale falls through (seller is in south east asia)
property has been on the market for 8 months via 3 estate agents now but was rented almost same time as it was put on sale
current tenants ,we could not talk to non english speaking persons
another flat on the same development 2 floors up has exactly same situation regarding tenancy
estate agent tells me that they will only give notice to tenants upon exchange

Cakeguts

hi123 wrote: »

not a first time buyer
buying for children to be living in as they are currently renting and working in the area
what i was told is the seller does not want to loose on the rental in case sale falls through (seller is in south east asia)
property has been on the market for 8 months via 3 estate agents now but was rented almost same time as it was put on sale
current tenants ,we could not talk to non english speaking persons
another flat on the same development 2 floors up has exactly same situation regarding tenancy
estate agent tells me that they will only give notice to tenants upon exchange

No. You do not want to do this. You have to have vacant possession on exchange. This flat is not for you. Find a different one.

Sea_Shell

Sounds like the sellers want their cake and eat it. They don't want any void period and want to go seamlessly from rental to sold.

It seldom works like that in the real world!! But then I don't think these overseas investors live in the real world!!