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AskAsk

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PRAISETHESUN

As a tenant who has been through a few house sales my advice to you as a LL would be to be a nice as possible to the tenants and give them as much information as possible about what you are intending to do. They hold all the cards - remember if they decided to play hard ball they could force you to take them to court to get an eviction notice, and in the meantime you are potentially ending up with no rent being paid and a trashed house. Any good solicitor won't let their client exchange without vacant possession, so it would also affect your ability to actually complete your sale.

Don't serve notice until you have a bit more of a plan of what you're doing, but a friendly "we are most likely going to sell in 6 months time" conversation would be a very good first step IMO and see how they react - if they start to give hints that they may cause problems then you can plan accordingly.

princeofpounds

If you previously said to them you would give 6 months' notice, then give 6 months' notice.

Ordinarily, your husband is right - you want to retain your optionality for as long as possible. Although I'd probably serve notice with something like three months' lead time, to be human and also to reduce the risk that they can't find onwards accommodation due to the short timescale of two months.

But going back on what you previously said you would do risks ill-feeling. And you don't really want someone who hates you sitting in your property if it can be avoided. 

diego_94

Currently the only way to give a notice is a S21, which will give them 2 months. However this is only a request to end the tenancy, they don't have to leave at the end of it.

If I were you I would get your tenants out before you market. No one in their right mind would spend money on the conveyancing process when tenants are in Situ. Could take you ages to get rid of them!

Give them a 6 month warning now if you want to. You aren't going to complete on a purchase within that time anyway. They can then start looking for somewhere new now, and you should hope that they comply.

theoretica

If your husband believes that 2 months notice will actually get unwilling tenants to leave in 2 months I think he has not been keeping informed of current timescales for evictions!  Maybe having a period without rent, or offering the house for sale earlier than you planned, seems much better to me than having annoyed tenants still in the house months after you wanted to sell.

theartfullodger

Be (as any decent landlord always be) nice and helpful to tenants, explain your plans, enquire if they are interested in purchasing, and that (assuming the obvious) you'll be delighted to provide a good reference, but hint at s21 likely big necessary).

You want them on your side.  The above process is more likely to get what you want than a bald s21 out of the blue.

Worked for me, sold 2 houses in past 3 years (old age & health).

You'll obviously appreciate that an s21 (even if valid, many are not....) does not end tenancy nor compel tenant to leave.

getmore4less

AskAsk said:

I am planning to sell my house in March next year so should I give my tenants more than the two months notice?  I feel I should give them plenty of notice so they can find another place but my husband thinks it is best to wait until January and give the S21 notice as things may change with covid and we can't sell in March.

Any thoughts?

I feel a bit guilty as I had promised them that I would give them at least 6 months notice if I were going to sell as they had asked if I was planning to do so.

Given you are basically are on their timescales for when they want to leave you don't get the choice of when to sell.

The longer you give the longer they have to find somewhere and may leave earlier than if you tried to get them out  for March. 

Have you asked if they want to buy it.

Since you have already said 6 months go with that now(say June) and say happy if they leave when ready if sooner.

Be prepared to incentivise if you really want to go for March.

TheJP

AskAsk said:

diego_94 said:

Currently the only way to give a notice is a S21, which will give them 2 months. However this is only a request to end the tenancy, they don't have to leave at the end of it.

If I were you I would get your tenants out before you market. No one in their right mind would spend money on the conveyancing process when tenants are in Situ. Could take you ages to get rid of them!

Give them a 6 month warning now if you want to. You aren't going to complete on a purchase within that time anyway. They can then start looking for somewhere new now, and you should hope that they comply.

i am planning to put the house on the market after they have left as i don't think it is a good idea to sell with tenants in situ.  i may just word things a bit more obscure as already mentioned by the responses that I am planning to sell next year to give them time to start thinking about moving.

my husband says the problem with telling them that we are selling now may mean they find another place and move out in december and that is the worst month to be putting the house on the market so we would have an empty house for a month.

I marketed my house in December and accepted an offer the next day.

PRAISETHESUN

AskAsk said:

diego_94 said:

Currently the only way to give a notice is a S21, which will give them 2 months. However this is only a request to end the tenancy, they don't have to leave at the end of it.

If I were you I would get your tenants out before you market. No one in their right mind would spend money on the conveyancing process when tenants are in Situ. Could take you ages to get rid of them!

Give them a 6 month warning now if you want to. You aren't going to complete on a purchase within that time anyway. They can then start looking for somewhere new now, and you should hope that they comply.

i am planning to put the house on the market after they have left as i don't think it is a good idea to sell with tenants in situ.  i may just word things a bit more obscure as already mentioned by the responses that I am planning to sell next year to give them time to start thinking about moving.

my husband says the problem with telling them that we are selling now may mean they find another place and move out in december and that is the worst month to be putting the house on the market so we would have an empty house for a month.

Sounds to some extent that you want to have your cake and eat it too. As I and others have said, you are essentially working on the tenant's timeline. If you don't tell them, there's a decent risk they don't move out in March and it screws with your sale plans. On the other hand if you give them a heads up and they leave early, at least you now have a vacant property to make selling much easier. Any good letting business should have a plan to handle voids anyway.

theoretica

Have you spoken to an estate agent about marketing the house - and specifically if there would be a BTL market for it with tenants in situ?  The answer may well be that it is likely to fetch less, but it seems worth asking the question.

caprikid1

I guess if it was round the other way what would you want ?