Is there anything we can do?

[Deleted User]

After non stop chasing we’ve finally been told today that the tenants living in the house were supposed to exchange and complete on next week aren’t in a position to exchange and complete themselves because they’re waiting on an equity release for their deposit.

There is no eta for this. We’ve spent 5 months trying to buy this house which was advertised as chain free and we were told would be vacant. 

Definitely learnt a few lessons the hard way through buying and selling.

macman

No LL can ever guarantee a date for vacant possession until the tenants actually vacate, whatever may have been agreed or promised.

Thrugelmir

Deleted User said:

Definitely learnt a few lessons the hard way through buying and selling.

Yep. Take up yoga as an activity. Matters or more often or not are totally outside of your control. Getting fed information doesn't really help either. As there's too many variables in play. 

Ms_Chocaholic

I'd probably go round and knock on the door and speak nicely to the tenants, that's the only real way of finding out.

[Deleted User]

Ms_Chocaholic said:

I'd probably go round and knock on the door and speak nicely to the tenants, that's the only real way of finding out.

The tenants are involved in the comms. It’s not just the LLs word we had based everything on. Our solicitor was dealing with the tenants solicitor as well, and they’d said they were ready to exchange and complete and leave it vacant for us by the end of this week and sadly failed to mention that the deposit was tied up this way and actually they had no real idea when they could exchange. I learnt months ago not to listen to the word of the seller which is why we made the contact through to the tenants instead. 

I was tempted to knock the door myself, but there’s been a few occasions now where their chains been delayed and so they’ve been ok with delaying ours as a result so I don’t think they’re the type of people to reason with. 

I know it’ll be a matter of opinion on this thread as to whether tenants are doing the right thing by staying in a house until fought in court, but I’ve been evicted in the past, as have family members, simply because it’s bad luck and the LLs want to sell up or move back in. I’ve always vacated on time and moved to another rental even if its temporary until I sort my own place or a more appropriate rental. I appreciate that’s not always so easy and would take a while, but I think it’s pretty unreasonable to just stay there indefinitely at the cost of others.

lookstraightahead

Deleted User said:

Ms_Chocaholic said:

I'd probably go round and knock on the door and speak nicely to the tenants, that's the only real way of finding out.

I know it’ll be a matter of opinion on this thread as to whether tenants are doing the right thing by staying in a house until fought in court, but I’ve been evicted in the past, as have family members, simply because it’s bad luck and the LLs want to sell up or move back in. I’ve always vacated on time and moved to another rental even if its temporary until I sort my own place or a more appropriate rental. I appreciate that’s not always so easy and would take a while, but I think it’s pretty unreasonable to just stay there indefinitely at the cost of others.

You mean you left, you weren't evicted?

the thing is, why should these tenants move for you when their chain is nothing to do with yours? 

You could say why haven't you moved out to allow your FTB to complete?  Why didn't you do that and rent yourselves, short term, while you sort yourselves out? 

if I were the tenant in a position to buy and I didn't need to rent anymore, I wouldn't be leaving either.

The tenants are probably well and truly fed up of everyone contacting them. They will move out of their home when they are ready. 

Sorry this doesn't help you but you can never rely on vacant possession until it is vacant,

[Deleted User]

I think I’ve already owned the mistakes we’ve made and admitted we shouldn’t have relied on vacant possession until we saw it first hand so I’m not sure what you intended by repeating it back to me. 

The tenants will have to leave eventually. They can either accept the LL is selling the house and leave before the date requested. They can choose to negotiate a later date and stay on good terms with a good reference and attempt to keep all parties aware. They can ignore it and leave when ready or they could do nothing and wait to be taken to court and then potentially forcefully be removed.

Whatever they choose to do, they will forever be under pressure to leave until they do so. Therefore it’s not remotely comparative to say why haven’t I moved out of my house.
I own my home, no one can fight me to leave. I can chain break and allow my buyers to move in, but if I don’t find somewhere I want to live, then I’d rather be in a position to take my house off the market and accept I need to try again in future - Something I can do without anyone threatening legal action against me for residing in their residence. 

Equally I feel no sympathy for them not being impressed that they’re being contacted a lot - What do you expect when they’re living in a house 6 months past the date they were asked to leave by. The LL could have problems of their own requiring the money from the sale. There are lots of other parties involved who could equally be finding this difficult, not just the tenants. 

I came on here for advice, not sure why some people feel the need to respond with such unhelpful comments. 

As I’ve said, we’ve learnt the hard way and I posted here in case anyone had any useful advice for us, which many have. 

koalakoala

It's nothing really to do with the tenants. You made a contract with the owner of the property.

980233

You should walked/run away from this property the day you found out there were tenants as you were I'm sure advised. It's now nearly November and the tenants are being tenants and should not dance to anyone's tune.

getmore4less

5th thread on the same thing 

First was 31 Aug.

I’ve recently made an offer on a property that is currently occupied by tenants. The sale is offered on vacant possession basis and hence was listed as “chain free”.

I’ve since been made aware that the current occupiers have been allowed by the seller to remain until they find somewhere else to live, meaning I cannot exchange until they vacate and no date can be set for this until they’ve found a property to live in, and obviously there is no incentive for them to hurry. 

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6293741/buying-a-property-that-s-occupied-with-tenants

Ignored a lot of what was said in that one.
warning signs were there 8 weeks ago

3 weeks later(20 Sept) they let slip they had been keeping their FTB on the hook for 8/9 weeks looking for a place moaning they had not got a mortgage sorted(the advice is to wait till your seller is proceedable before progressing stuff).

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6298316/buyers-slowing-chain-down-what-can-you-do

closely followed by the down valuation, no need for a new thread for that it was mentioned at the end of the last one same day

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6299043/down-valuation-what-next

trot on another 3 weeks and the bombshell  top of the chain is a new build not due till next year.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6303933/seller-has-gone-back-on-their-word


Then this one has the "it's a Friday complete", we all know what can go wrong with those where  nothing happens at the weekend can't fix anything till the following week.

Actually you can think of this as two chains as the middle people are tenants

The tenants are chain free below them, can just sit there till their chain completes which is dictated by them and the people going to the new build.

THEN

The landlord can look at completing their chain with the OP and the FTB at the bottom.