Asking landlord to buy property

SJE89

My partner and I are currently private renting. When we moved in we contacted the landlord to introduce ourselves as the letting process had been handled by an agent, but they weren’t managing the property after that. 

We had a few questions about things such as painting a couple of rooms and taking in my mums dog as she had struggled to care for him after my dad died. 

In the email we also said that if they ever wanted to sell the house, we would love to have the opportunity to buy from them. 

They met us and approved our requests for painting and the dog as they were so happy with how we were keeping the house as it is obviously a risky business to rent a property to people you don’t know. 

My partner and I are now in a position where we can look to buy property. 

How is the best way to approach the ll about this so that we are more likely to get it?
im not sure what the house is worth, but we pay £695 a month in rent. Would the landlord prefer to continue to receive this money or be paid the value of the house?
They’re fairly well off and are getting to retirement age, so I expect they may look to sell the house in a few years anyway, but I’d rather not lose all that money in rent at the same time. If we have to move it’s not the end of the world. 

user1977

SJE89 said:

How is the best way to approach the ll about this so that we are more likely to get it?

"Would you be interested in selling the house to us" would be the obvious initial question, and take it from there.

ProDave

First off, just get an estate agent around to give you an idea what it is worth (not the same one that arranged the current let)  then you can work out if you can actually afford it, and afford the required mortgage and deposit to proceed.  If you can't afford that, then don't go any further.

Then speak to the landlord, not by email, ask to have a face to face meeting and discuss buying the house.  The worst thing is he could say no, in which case start looking for other houses to buy.

Until you ask, you don't know what his longer term intentions are, he might prefer to sell and have a lump of cash going into retirement, but that might come with a big CGT bill so he might just prefer the rental income for his retirement.

canaldumidi

The rent you pay is irrelevant so far as the (sales) market value of the property is concerned, so step one is to a) get 1 or 2 estate agents (not letting agents!) to value the poperty and b) look yourself at other localproperties online: what are they advertised for sale for and what are they actually selling for?

Once you have a relaistic idea of the value, look at your finances - can you afford to buy? Do you need a mortgage? Would you be able to get one?

Then bake a nice madeira cake. Invite the landlord round, put on the kettle, make your offer and see what they say. You might need to negotiate on price, but remember to point out they won't pay estate agent selling fees. Or they might just say no, but even so, you've had a nice cake and improved your relationship with your LL!

Sandtree

SJE89 said:

Would the landlord prefer to continue to receive this money or be paid the value of the house?
They’re fairly well off and are getting to retirement age, so I expect they may look to sell the house in a few years anyway, but I’d rather not lose all that money in rent at the same time. If we have to move it’s not the end of the world. 

Only your landlord will know the answer to that question. If the property is unencumbered then your rent payments may well be a notable part of their retirement income plans or they may be liquidating some of their capital assets to have an around the world cruise

theoretica

I wouldn't surprise the landlord with this in a face to face meeting if you never see them otherwise - let them know why you are asking to meet - they will need time to think about the idea, maybe gather their own thoughts about valuation.

user1977

I don't think there's much point spending time/effort on valuing the place if the LL simply isn't interested in selling? Just ask if they are, and then worry about price and affordability - you're not committing yourself to anything by floating the question.

But in general I would assume that they became (and remain) landlords because they want to be landlords and want the income. And wouldn't assume that just because retirement might be approaching means they want that income to end.