Is this normal for a tenant in situ?

a_fierce_bad_rabbit

Not me, but a family friend.
She is in a fairly old tenancy (over 25 years) and house is now being sold with her in it. Has great relationship with owner who does not want to see her have to move for the next few years. So owner is selling with her in it.
House is old and needs serious refurbishment, but is safe and should be fine until tenant wishes to move out. The asking price is very low and the property is in, sadly, a now depressed area. 
What we want to know is, is it typical to have over 10 people per week wishing to view?
Is this type of property more desirable in the current market for some reason?

It is exhausting for the tenant and getting in the way of her work. Agent even said this is set to increase so she is a bit stressed about having strangers in her home every few days and having to take time off work and not know when this will relax. We expected no takers to be honest!
Why are so many potential buyers so interested in a run down property in an undesirable place with a sitting tenant?

Just wondering if this is normal?

sammyjammy

My alarm bells would be ringing as to whether its actually listed with a tenant in situ?  People may think that she will be moving out.

sammyjammy

Nothing stopping her coming to an arrangement with the EA as to when viewing suit her rather than when they say.

a_fierce_bad_rabbit

sammyjammy said:

My alarm bells would be ringing as to whether its actually listed with a tenant in situ?  People may think that she will be moving out.

Oh they definitely know, she has shown quite a few around already and it's been fine. 
Property is online with all the relevant info about tenant.

theartfullodger

She does not have to permit any viewing, nor any sign outside 

People viewing will think they can boot her out quick and make a huge profit.

Exactly when did she first move in please?  (Has bearing on what sort of tenancy she has and this complexity of eviction).

The experts Shelter on 0808 800 44444. Experts in landlord/tenant matters.

a_fierce_bad_rabbit

theartfullodger said:

She does not have to permit any viewing, nor any sign outside 

People viewing will think they can boot her out quick and make a huge profit.

Exactly when did she first move in please?  (Has bearing on what sort of tenancy she has and this complexity of eviction).

The experts Shelter on 0808 800 44444. Experts in landlord/tenant matters.

Not sure when she first moved there, it was over 20 years ago.
No idea what sort of tenancy, am only aware that she was asked how long she planned to stay there and the owner and those viewing seemed fine with it.
I'm more interested in why so many people viewing. Maybe it is a popular category, I have no idea.

So are the people viewing likely to lie to her? If this is in the contract how can they boot her out?

Brie

I don't know how a person who has sold a property can ensure that the tenant would be allowed to stay.  It's not like employment law where a company can sell a part of it's business and the employees can be TUPEd to the new owner so there would be some obligations.

I suspect that people are seeing a very affordable property available online and go to see if they might be able to fix it up for resale or to move in to. They will have absolutely no real concern for the person already living there.  But once they find out how complicated it might be to get rid of someone they are probably deciding it's not worth the effort.

10 viewings a week aren't a huge amount.  There's nice places that might get that many a day if the EA can handle them all.

theartfullodger

You need to find out date (exact) she moved in before much serious advice.  Does she have original tenancy paperwork?

Entirely legal to buy with tenant in residence, but most buyers will be planning to evict.

Is she on local council housing waiting list please?

a_fierce_bad_rabbit

Thanks.
That doesn't sound good. The rent is really low too, way below market rent, so I had been curious why so many potential LL's would want an old property with a cheap rent.

Brie

Sounds like having the original tenancy agreement would be really helpful.  If she doesn't have it perhaps it could be requested from the landlord? 

There may be something in it that shows what increase can be done annually in rent.  That in itself might be a barrier to some buyers.  They might think they can hike the rent to 50% above market levels to get her shifted more quickly.  (don't know if that's legal in the normal realm of things).  Or they may be happy to have her remain if the rent was increased to the market rate - which may be beyond her means of course. 

I wonder if any of that is mentioned in the EA blurb - maybe get someone else to pretend to be interested in viewing to query for you???

Slithery

The current owners wishes are irrelevant.
The only thing that matters is what sort of tenancy she has as some older types may make it almost impossible to evict her, whereas other newer types would make it easy. A good place to start is Shelters tenancy checker...
https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/downloads_and_tools/tenancy_rights_checker