Conveyancing Taking Forever. Tenancy Noticed Served. Help!

konn1ch1ha

Hi all,

The house my wife and I are buying is taking forever with the conveyancing (mainly due to forms either being misplaced or lost in the post, either way it’s frustrating). My wife and I are a cash buyer, we have had a survey done on the property and are awaiting the report. Our notice in our current residence is up on the 31st March and we will potentially be homeless. I have informed my landlord and he has said he can give us a week more, so our our tenancy would end on the 6/7th of April, which doesn’t make much difference. He also stated we should play the “evil landlord” card to guilt trip the solicitors in to moving faster. 

The offer on the house was accepted in October, and the vendor told me he sent his forms in very soon after the offer was accepted. I am in direct contact with the vendor and he has a business partner/the other owner who has been, what looks like, slightly slack with the forms/instructions. And apparently, the vendor’s solicitor has said it’s very unlikely to completed before our tenancy finishes, and also said, basically, if I wanted to pull out that would be completely understandable. I am planning to speak with the vendor this weekend to devise a plan and get things moving. 

The vendor has offered us to move in to the property on a cheap rental price whilst the conveyancing goes through. My solicitor said this would not be permitted. Is this true? And why so? We are keen to buy the house and we don’t want to be homeless. 

Any advice welcome please!

TIA

canaldumidi

Never sensible to serve notice (or indeed take any significant decisions) before Exchange of Contrcts. Till then you can have no idea when Completion will happen, or indeed whether your purhase will go through at all.

Having served notice, if you remain in occupation without consent, you can be charged double rent as 'mesne profits'.

konn1ch1ha

canaldumidi said:

Never sensible to serve notice (or indeed take any significant decisions) before Exchange of Contrcts. Till then you can have no idea when Completion will happen, or indeed whether your purhase will go through at all.

Having served notice, if you remain in occupation without consent, you can be charged double rent as 'mesne profits'.

We weren’t in control of our notice, it was served to us by our landlord. Sorry if I didn’t explain that correctly above. 

theartfullodger

If landlord served notice that does not end tenancy nor compel a tenant to leave.

To force you out -even assume notice is valid, many are not, would take months,. Court, decision, possession order, expiry of, bailiffs - probably 4 to 7 months 

Just smile but ignore landlord.

When you do eventually leave, if landlord has half a brain (not even that required to he a landlord) he'll probably be so pleased you've gone there will be no more rent to pay.

Slithery

In that case there's nothing to worry about. A LL giving notice doesn't end the tenancy or compel the tenants to leave.

If you stay past the notice date on the S21 then you automatically go onto a rolling tenancy - it's your legal right.

Please read...

Ending/renewing an AST

konn1ch1ha

Slithery said:

In that case there's nothing to worry about. A LL giving notice doesn't end the tenancy or compel the tenants to leave.

If you stay past the notice date on the S21 then you automatically go onto a rolling tenancy - it's your legal right.

Please read...

Ending/renewing an AST

Hang on, is this really our get out of jail free card? He sent us an email and a posted letter, are these still not valid? We of course agree to leave as we deemed official notice. Are we wrong and he needs to provide a Form 6a by law?

I should mention he’s acting on behalf the landlord as he’s the son of one of the landlords that died and his uncle was one of the landlords. 

In the letter he sent states:

“In accordance to the tenancy agreement between you (name and name) (“The Tenants”) and (landlords’ name) (“The Landlords”) dated 1st July 2018 for (address), I’m writing on behalf of the Landlords to terminate the tenancy at the date of this agreement. The tenancy agreement allows either the Landlord or the Tenants to terminate the tenancy with the Landlords giving you the Tenants at least two month’s notice in writing. Please accept this letter as the Landlords formal notice to terminate the tenancy dated 1st July 2008 as of the date of this letter (Monday 31st January 2022). You will be required to yield up the property by no later than noon on Monday 28th March 2022.”

We have a fairly good relationship with our landlord and the son and don’t want particularly  want it to turn sour but is this our “out”?

Slithery

A LL can't legally end a tenancy no matter what they write in the tenancy agreement or a letter. The only people that can end a tenancy are the courts or the tenant.

Please read the link I posted earlier as it explains all of this in detail.

theartfullodger

That notice can happily be ignored.  To evict you, legally, would need to be  a section 21 notice or section 8 notice which it ain't.

Thatcher's 1988 Housing Act s(1) makes it clear for landlord to evict requires court, bailiffs etc.  Please don't believe me, look it up!

Artful: landlord since 2000

kazwookie

I rented the property I bought, for about 3 weeks until completion, with the agreement I could do decoration, but no structural works.

All worked well. It also ment I could get the cat out of the cattery, and into the new house before us.

Thrugelmir

konn1ch1ha said:

 I am in direct contact with the vendor and he has a business partner/the other owner who has been, what looks like, slightly slack with the forms/instructions. 

So there's another party involved besides the one you are in contact with. Is there something going on between the two of them that is causing the delays?  You'd expect business people to want the deal done and dusted. No messing about. 

konn1ch1ha

Thrugelmir said:

konn1ch1ha said:

 I am in direct contact with the vendor and he has a business partner/the other owner who has been, what looks like, slightly slack with the forms/instructions. 

So there's another party involved besides the one you are in contact with. Is there something going on between the two of them that is causing the delays?  You'd expect business people to want the deal done and dusted. No messing about. 

Ex-business partner but still owns half of it. On good terms I believe but just slow in doing his par I think.