Keep viewing properties with tenants

MovingForwards

GDB2222 said:

K_S said:

@rumana03 I'll sound a slightly contrary note here. Since covid, I have had a higher than usual number of FTBs buying properties from landlord vendors with tenants in at the viewing stage.

Other than the usual conveyancing delays, I'm not aware of any of these transactions falling through because the tenants wouldn't leave at all.

Caveat - we're a small firm and most of the above were flats in London where there is a high turnover of tenants anyways, so this may not be representative of the rest of the country.

The one thing I will say is that avoid taking anything the EA says about the tenants at face-value, make your own mind up based on what you see.

I agree. I think that the risks are being overstated on this forum, possibly because there have been a number of threads on cases where things have gone wrong. Nobody starts a thread to say that everything has gone ahead as planned.

Same with most things, if it's gone ok no one says so. That's why when these types of threads do pop up I say my personal experience.

RS2OOO

I've just bought a house that was tenanted.

No mention of it on initial enquiries to the EA.
Didn't cross my mind this was why the EA photos for the property were out of date (2 years old).
Tenants were in when we viewed early morning - half dressed and running around getting ready for work, and a new born baby asleep in one of the bedrooms.
That was our first inkling they were tenants.

We were told they were already in process of moving out.
That later became an S21 and 4 Months notice.

Tenants moved out and that side of the transaction (the purchase) went smoothly.

Only when we moved in and neighbours were telling us what lovely people they were and how gutted everyone was that they were forced out did I get a feeling things weren't as they seemed.

On a local app (Nextdoor) I then noticed posts from them about being evicted and looking for somewhere to live urgently, and lots of people giving them advice to stay put and ignore the S21 - but the tenants said they couldn't do that because it wasn't the buyers (our) fault they were being evicted as it was the landlords decision.

Did I feel bad about it all?

Yes.

Do I suspect some of the neighbours hold a bit of a grudge?

Yes.

Even the postman and a DHL delivery driver asked if they'd managed to find anywhere ok in the end, mentioning how tough it was for them with their newborn.

Yep, I felt pretty bad about the whole thing.

That said, I also felt bad for them living here since the tenants before them had sabotaged a number of things in and around the house and these tenants had just put up with it. 

They left the house very clean and tidy as we had a 2nd viewing the morning after they moved out. They had filled over picture holes etc and the ancient in-built oven was as clean as anyone was going to get it.

Rumana03

RS2OOO said:

I've just bought a house that was tenanted.

No mention of it on initial enquiries to the EA.
Didn't cross my mind this was why the EA photos for the property were out of date (2 years old).
Tenants were in when we viewed early morning - half dressed and running around getting ready for work, and a new born baby asleep in one of the bedrooms.
That was our first inkling they were tenants.

We were told they were already in process of moving out.
That later became an S21 and 4 Months notice.

Tenants moved out and that side of the transaction (the purchase) went smoothly.

Only when we moved in and neighbours were telling us what lovely people they were and how gutted everyone was that they were forced out did I get a feeling things weren't as they seemed.

On a local app (Nextdoor) I then noticed posts from them about being evicted and looking for somewhere to live urgently, and lots of people giving them advice to stay put and ignore the S21 - but the tenants said they couldn't do that because it wasn't the buyers (our) fault they were being evicted as it was the landlords decision.

Did I feel bad about it all?

Yes.

Do I suspect some of the neighbours hold a bit of a grudge?

Yes.

Even the postman and a DHL delivery driver asked if they'd managed to find anywhere ok in the end, mentioning how tough it was for them with their newborn.

Yep, I felt pretty bad about the whole thing.

That said, I also felt bad for them living here since the tenants before them had sabotaged a number of things in and around the house and these tenants had just put up with it. 

That wasn't your fault though because you weren't aware of the situation. And to be fair they were given notice. When anyone is renting, either the landlord or tenant can decide to give notice. They knew that going in. It's unfortunate that the timing for them was not great since they had a newborn. That's the landlord being a bit heartless.

Well we didn't end up getting the flat which has tenants anyway because we found out today that someone else had half their offer in cash so they got picked over us. We offered more but the other buyer only needed half a mortgage. Oh well...

The good news is that we just found out today that the property we liked best since we have been searching has become available again. The buyer's mortgage fell through so the EA asked us if we are still interested. Of course we jumped at the chance of buying this house. Hopefully should find put today or tomorrow if we can proceed with it. The seller is in the process of buying a new place so seems to need to sell this house quick.

Comptoncare

ProDave said:

Do we take from this that a lot of landlords are now selling up to exit that market?  The inevitable result of being near the top of a boom and wanting to cash in on the value before the next crash and not wanting to update older properties to meed the ever increasing rules placed on landlords?

Yes this is exactly what I did. Had a buy to let town house which I had been renting out for approximately 10 years, all my tenants have been excellent. Waited for my last tenant to get to the end of the fixed term and then informed him that I was looking to sell and gave him first refusal, unfortunately he couldn't afford it and moved out. Placed the property on the market got a cash buyer fairly quickly and accepted their offer. However they were too slow and remarked after 10 weeks of little or no progress.  Received an offer within a week which  was £20k over the original price. It helped that there was a shortage of property in the area. I am relieved to have offloaded the property, the burden on landlords is too onerous and I am glad I am no longer one.