Can i sell my property during Section 21 notice period

pskelley

My Wife and I put our property up to rent when we had to relocate to a different area due to a new job she was offered. We have now decided that we would like to relocate properly to this new area so we would like to sell up and buy something closer to her work.
We have tenants in the property and we will be able to issue a section 21 on them on 9th May, we will be giving them a 2 month notice period.
We need to understand if we can advertise the property for sale with an estate agent and start the process moving forward during this notice period or do we need to wait for the tenants to be out of the property? 

user1977

No legal problem with doing so, might be more of a practical one depending on how helpful the tenants wish to be with viewings etc. Bear in mind they might not necessarily leave on the expiry of the notice too.

Myci85

You can market the property whilst section 21 in place, but if you read through many posts on here you will see that serving a section 21 doesn't mean you will have vacant possession on the date it expires, so most people would recommend not marketing until you have the property vacant. 
Also check your section 21 is valid against the many criteria. 

swingaloo

You can issue the Section 21 as long as you can serve a valid one.  However, that does not mean that your tenants will be leaving in 2 months. The more notice they get the better the chance of them finding somewhere to move to.
It would be wise to speak to them to let them know you are going to be selling and please be aware that this may come as a shock to them and they may or may not be happy to allow viewings.
It would be wise to wait till you know how they feel and their intentions before putting the house on sale as you will not be able to exchange and complete whilst they are in situ unless you are selling to another landlord.

FlorayG

Yes you can; I bought a property with tenant under notice of S21 and made her year by telling her she could stay. I wanted a BTL, everyone was happy, especially the vendor as you can't sensibly exchange and complete until the tenant is out if you want the property for yourself

saajan_12

There's no rules around marketing, but practically if the tenant doesn't help with viewings, it will be very hard to force it. 

Then say you find a buyer - it would be unwise to exchange while the tenant is in situ (unless selling to another LL) as the tenant may not leave in time and you'll be the one liable for the buyer's costs for however long it takes to get the tenant out. 

pskelley

Thank you all very much for the quick and informative responses. The aim is to give notice as soon as possible so the tenants have an extra 2 or 3 weeks to prepare themselves. We will try to be as respectful of their position as we can and hopefully work with them through the process.

PRAISETHESUN

pskelley said:

Thank you all very much for the quick and informative responses. The aim is to give notice as soon as possible so the tenants have an extra 2 or 3 weeks to prepare themselves. We will try to be as respectful of their position as we can and hopefully work with them through the process.

Keep in mind that the tenants hold all the cards really. If you want them to move on your schedule then you need to play nice with them, possibly offering incentives (£££). The S21 does not compel them to leave - it's really just a piece of paper at the end of the day that says you're going to take them to court (time + expense), and if you are not prepared to follow through with it then it's essentially meaningless. A "ew extra weeks" means nothing really if they decide they'd rather just stay put. If you're confident you have a good relationship with your tenant then by all means this might just be unnecessary panic, but just trying to paint the worst case scenario as you sound unreasonably relaxed about the implications of this all.

Flo87

Inform the tenants as soon as you can, even you don`t issue the S21 at that time. And if they are interested to buy it, offer them a small discount.