Buying a property with a Tennent in situ??

[doogalman]

Looking for any tails of anyone's experience of the above. My son is about to enter the minefield of buying his first home.
A couple of the properties he is looking to view have tenants in situ. He doesn't know this as yet as he is young and green, I only know because I enquired with the agents. The response I recieved from the agent was "that's not a problem they will move out after the sale", now I've never rented from a landlord or been a landlord. Also I have never truely trusted what an Estate Agent tells me.
What is really involved with all this game of tenant/landlord/buyer in real life?
Anyone any experience from any past dealing from any side of the fence?

Edited by doogalman on Wednesday 27th December 17:52

Apology for poor spelling in title.

Edited by doogalman on Wednesday 27th December 17:54

[cat with a hat]

There is technically a risk as the tenants might decide not to move out.

[NGee]

doogalman said:

Looking for any tails of anyone's experience of the above. My son is about to enter the minefield of buying his first home.
A couple of the properties he is looking to view have tenants in situ. He doesn't know this as yet as he is young and green, I only know because I enquired with the agents. The response I recieved from the agent was "that's not a problem they will move out after the sale", now I've never rented from a landlord or been a landlord. Also I have never truely trusted what an Estate Agent tells me.
What is really involved with all this game of tenant/landlord/buyer in real life?
Anyone any experience from any past dealing from any side of the fence?

Edited by doogalman on Wednesday 27th December 17:52

Apology for poor spelling in title.

Edited by doogalman on Wednesday 27th December 17:54

My bold above.


AVOID like the plague.
I assume your son is considering it because the price is cheaper but there will be a reason for this. Your son is not buying it from the tennant but from the landlord. Why is the landlord selling it? If the tennant decides not to move out your son could be looking at a minimum of 6 months of financial hell.
Do not sign anything until it is sold with vacant possesion (or what ever the correct legal term is).
The only people who should buy a house with a sitting tennant are people who want a BTL property and know EXACTLY what they are doing.

[barryrs]

As above, local authority advice appears to be that tenants must remain in rented accommodation until they are evicted by high court bailiffs theses days if they are looking for assistance

As such I wouldn’t complete on the purchase until they have left.

[The Moose]

Vacant property as a condition of exchange.

[mike74]

It's little wonder that the property market is in the state it's in when there are potential buyers who are so naive, ill prepared and apparently incapable of carrying out even the most basic checks and enquiries on houses that they're potentially interested in... instead just dive right in and then regret their purchase at leisure after believing anything that the nice estate agent tells them.


Absolutely no way should he even consider a tenanted property, vacant on possession is essential.

[Dogwatch]

[anonymous-user]

Run, run, run away as fast as you can..

[Gavia]

gottans said:

Run, run, run away as fast as you can..

Why? What use is a stupid post like that?

As said above, the key is vacant possession. How that’s delivered and in what timescales might delay the purchase, but it’s not the end of the world.

[anonymous-user]

Because buying your first house is emotional, it is very easy to get into a situation where a mistake gets made and the young buyer ends up with a big problem and no money to deal with it.

It would be more sensible to find a property without a tentant, there are enough things for a first-time buyer to worry about without this added major complication.

[daveinhampshire]

People tend to be very dramatic about this sort of thing, it really is quite simple. No mortgage company will fund a purchase without vacant possession unless it is a buy to let mortgage, even then they can be funny about contracts etc So simply make your offer based on vacant possession, the fact the seller is unlikely to need to find a property to move to on the sale means no chain. There can be a lot more grief from people selling and then taking months to find another property while you're left hanging.

[CubanPete]

Is it being sold tenanted or vacant possession?

I bought a flat, vacant possession that had a tennant in. Before we exchanged (and completed same day) I inspected the flat to check it was empty. It was.

[OddCat]

CubanPete said:

Is it being sold tenanted or vacant possession?

I bought a flat, vacant possession that had a tennant in. Before we exchanged (and completed same day) I inspected the flat to check it was empty. It was.

^^^^this^^^

[Gavia]

gottans said:

Because buying your first house is emotional, it is very easy to get into a situation where a mistake gets made and the young buyer ends up with a big problem and no money to deal with it.

It would be more sensible to find a property without a tentant, there are enough things for a first-time buyer to worry about without this added major complication.

Then why not say that, instead of your hyperbolic freak out.

Any purchase is made using a solicitor who will be acting for the lender as well, so they will ensure every I and t are dotted and crossed. Getting the tenant out is the vendor’s problem, as without it being vacant possession the purchase can’t happen.

[OddCat]

Gavia said:

Getting the tenant out is the vendor’s problem, as without it being vacant possession the purchase can’t happen.

^^^ absolutely this^^^

[daveinhampshire]

OddCat said:

Gavia said:

Getting the tenant out is the vendor’s problem, as without it being vacant possession the purchase can’t happen.

^^^ absolutely this^^^

Can you please stop offering good practical advice, it's ruining the atmosphere

[doogalman]

Many thanks for the replies. Since posting the question I have been doing some googling. Fortunately I have been lucky with my property dealings but I along with every parent would not want their offspring to walk into what could be a very expensive and or legal problem. Sure he won't go in blind but in his area property is not cheap so every penny saved/borrowed will be channelled into his future home and NOT dealing with other peoples problems that he can do without.
Just be nice if agents acting for tge vendors were up front to start with.

[Gavia]

doogalman said:

Many thanks for the replies. Since posting the question I have been doing some googling. Fortunately I have been lucky with my property dealings but I along with every parent would not want their offspring to walk into what could be a very expensive and or legal problem. Sure he won't go in blind but in his area property is not cheap so every penny saved/borrowed will be channelled into his future home and NOT dealing with other peoples problems that he can do without.
Just be nice if agents acting for tge vendors were up front to start with.

Why do you think they’ve not been?

What they've said is reasonably accurate. Whatbtheybshouldve said, amd maybwell have said, is that the tenant will move out before the sale completes, but possibly after exchange so that the vendor doesn’t lose a tenant and potentially a sale.

[doogalman]

Gavia said:

Why do you think they’ve not been?

What they've said is reasonably accurate. Whatbtheybshouldve said, amd maybwell have said, is that the tenant will move out before the sale completes, but possibly after exchange so that the vendor doesn’t lose a tenant and potentially a sale.

Because they have said the tenant will move out AFTER the sale. So we will see what else is said on the viewing. I may even trek up to have a look.

[The Moose]

doogalman said:

Just be nice if agents acting for tge vendors were up front to start with.

Agent acting in their own best interests SHOCKER!