Selling house to tenant

dllive

I have a tenant who has lived in one of my rentals for a couple of years. Very decent chap. He's expressed interest in buying the property, which Im very interested in doing.

Benefits are:

• hes a known entity
• dont need to engage EAs, hold viewings, market the property etc.
• he knows the property inside and out (literally!)
• hes already got a mortgage in principal

What do you think - if everything went smoothly - the timescale would likely be? 2 months?

What would the general process be? Perhaps:

1. I contact 3 EAs to value the property; then agree with tenant on the price
2. We each engage conveyancing solicitors
3. what else?

Thanks

anselld

Yes it is fairly straightforward.

Maybe more like 3 months if leasehold.

Not necessary to use EAs if you can agree a price based on similar local sales. However if you do use EAs be aware some have tendency to inflate price in effort to win business and some may be unwilling to engage if they know you will not be using them for sale. Alternatively you could pay for a surveyor valuation.

You need to remember to declare and pay cgt within 60 days of sale and it would probably be best to try and ensure sale is completed before the next budget.

dllive

Great, thanks.

Its freehold.

Its an older property, so fairly unique. Or at least, its not on a housing estate with a hundred other properties same size/shape/age. So may use EAs or surveyor valuation

I used to live in that property. I moved out (and bought another house) about 5 years ago. How and who calculate what CGT is owed?

horsewithnoname

capital gains info here: https://www.gov.uk/tax-sell-property/work-out-your-gain

I’d see if you can agree a price with your tenant. Remember it will save you EA fees and the possible cost and hassle of getting a tenant out and getting it ready for sale and possibly being stood empty for a while.

TroubledTarts

To put a figure on the least path of resistance, imaging dealing with an estate agent, their fees and then the hassle of getting the tenant out at the right time to not lose rent or if selling tenanted the lower price you would have to sell for.

Got to be worth £10k off.

mills112

i had this with a couple of properties but it never came to anything as the tenants could not afford to pay or want to get the property for a lot less.

found it was a waste of time so ended up selling with estate agent.

mlz1413

Tell the EA you want a valuation as you may mortgage the property, thren they know increasing the value isn't needed to win business.

I sold a property to tenants many years ago, it was fairly straightforward but still took as long as the solicitors decided to take!