Sell property asap but stay in it, advice please

Section62

diystarter7 said:

EA - cash buyers only, or cash buyers looking to rent it out - NB people that really want a property to bTL for cash will at times consider a contract for you to stay for a few months rent free, or rent at different levels. On of our children done that they loved the area - an apartment, seller stated they could not move for xx months due to completing contracting and then moving abroad - bought the place and the people lived there for about 70% of normal rent and moved out as agreed - kids did this as it was a lovely location and apartments were rarely up for sale - its rare but it does happen.

What you describe there is 'sale and rent back'. As pointed out in the more recent posts, it is a regulated activity and can only be done if you register with the FCA and follow their (fairly onerous) rules.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/mortgage-problems-debt-and-money/how-to-sort-out-your-mortgage-problems/sale-and-rent-back-schemes/

You might wish to go back to the post and edit it to make that clearer, as currently it reads as if these arrangements still happen and are relatively common, before mentioning "its rare but it does happen".

I think that would be helpful just in case someone reads that far in the thread and goes away thinking this is a lawful activity, without reading the later posts which explain why it isn't.

Section62

Rellen said:

I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone for all of your advice and suggestions, not just with original questions but for everything else too. 

One other thing, which I don't think has been mentioned yet, is contacting your local council.  Some of them do operate schemes where they will purchase someone's home and allow them to remain there for a set period of time (in effect a form of sale and rent back), or have an arrangement with a local housing association to do similar.

It is probably more common in relation to former council/social housing, but some councils will consider purchasing a wider variety if they have a shortage of that particular type of property.