Tenant wants to buy my house

[Rich_AR]

So my tenants have shown an interest in buying my house. It's not for sale and this only came up in conversation when I asked for more rent. But, thinking about it I'd happily let it go to them.

1) What's the easiest and free way go get a valuation? I won't be advertising it on the market.

2) Other than linking mine and their solicitors together, is there anything else I need to consider?

3) Capital Gains Tax - I lived in the house for 18 months before I moved abroad and thus rented it. Would I pay any upon the sale?

Cheers

[BoRED S2upid]

Valuation - Tell and agent your thinking of selling whats its current valuation? How much? no its ok I will continue to rent but thanks for that. All they are likely to do is search on Rightmove or Zoopla.

Buyer will have to get a valuation for the mortgage so if yours and theres match its all good.

[The jiffle king]

Rich_AR said:

So my tenants have shown an interest in buying my house. It's not for sale and this only came up in conversation when I asked for more rent. But, thinking about it I'd happily let it go to them.

3) Capital Gains Tax - I lived in the house for 18 months before I moved abroad and thus rented it. Would I pay any upon the sale?

Cheers

The CGT part is interesting. I too worked abroad and have come back to the UK. There is a piece which says that working abroad means you are not liable for CGT.... AS LONG AS YOU RETURN TO YOUR HOUSE. I write that in capitals as I spent ages with a tax advisor working out the real rules on this.
If you have not returned to the house since you were away, you lose the CGT exemption for whilst you were away. The way to gain this back is to live at the address and it be your valid postal address (Voting, banks etc etc)

I think given the advice that I had, if you don´t move into the house before selling that the CGT liability will be from the time you left to work abroad. You do get the 3 years "grace" part to add to this, but if you moved in 2006 abroad. Were abroad until 2009 and have been living in the UK since then, you are liable for CGT. If you moved back into your house, the 2006-2009 period is not taken into account. This applies even if you rented or had another house in the UK during the 2009-2013 period.

I´m not sure if I have made sense but it´s a difficult area and I spent ages with the tax teams to establish this. Happy to try and answer specifics if needed or if you have a scenario, then write it down and I can try to explain.

I´m not a tax expert, but did have this exact situation, so have a little knowledge


Edited to add
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Edited by The jiffle king on Thursday 21st February 13:53

[wattsm666]

How long have you owned it in total?

[cerberaperv]

If you email me the property address and description, I'll send you a desktop valuation.

We've surveyors software and Rightmove+ which is more than your avg EA uses. They'll just use RM+ to see what's on the market and what's been archived on RM.
Ours can tell you if your neighbour has had a RICs val for remortgage within the last few yrs.

[princeperch]

cerberaperv said:

If you email me the property address and description, I'll send you a desktop valuation.

We've surveyors software and Rightmove+ which is more than your avg EA uses. They'll just use RM+ to see what's on the market and what's been archived on RM.
Ours can tell you if your neighbour has had a RICs val for remortgage within the last few yrs.

this might be of use for me actually - if it costs I'd be happy to cover those costs - may I PM you?

[JQ]

You're about to enter into negotiations to sell probably the most expensive thing you own and want to save a couple of hundred quid finding out what the item is worth. Just get it valued by someone who's actually qualified to do so. To get an RICS valuer to give you a value will cost about half your legal fees and then you'll be negotiating from a position of knowledge. Asking an agent to value, or even 3, will be no different to plucking a number from the air yourslf with a bit of time spent on Google. Agents have motivations that they won't disclose to you - some will quote high to get the job, some will quote low so they can get a quick sale and some won't have a clue what they're doing and just guess.

If you really can't afford to pay £250 to get it valued, then get the tenants to make a mortgage application and base it on their valuation. Personally I'd want my own valuation, with the valuer in receipt of all the details of the proposed sale.

[Rich_AR]

cerberaperv said:

If you email me the property address and description, I'll send you a desktop valuation.

We've surveyors software and Rightmove+ which is more than your avg EA uses. They'll just use RM+ to see what's on the market and what's been archived on RM.
Ours can tell you if your neighbour has had a RICs val for remortgage within the last few yrs.

Thanks, I've just emailed you.

JQ said:

You're about to enter into negotiations to sell probably the most expensive thing you own and want to save a couple of hundred quid finding out what the item is worth. Just get it valued by someone who's actually qualified to do so. To get an RICS valuer to give you a value will cost about half your legal fees and then you'll be negotiating from a position of knowledge. Asking an agent to value, or even 3, will be no different to plucking a number from the air yourslf with a bit of time spent on Google. Agents have motivations that they won't disclose to you - some will quote high to get the job, some will quote low so they can get a quick sale and some won't have a clue what they're doing and just guess.

If you really can't afford to pay £250 to get it valued, then get the tenants to make a mortgage application and base it on their valuation. Personally I'd want my own valuation, with the valuer in receipt of all the details of the proposed sale.

Valid point sir. Not a case of spending the money, just free is always nice (Yorkshireman here )

[JQ]

Rich_AR said:

Valid point sir. Not a case of spending the money, just free is always nice (Yorkshireman here )

And if that £250 valuation gets you an extra £5,000 on the sale price?

[AndrewO]

Rich_AR said:

1) What's the easiest and free way go get a valuation? I won't be advertising it on the market.

2) Other than linking mine and their solicitors together, is there anything else I need to consider?

3) Capital Gains Tax - I lived in the house for 18 months before I moved abroad and thus rented it. Would I pay any upon the sale?

1. Ask a couple of estate agents to give you an evaluation
2. If you have the tenants on a contract with a letting agent they quite often put a clause in for 1% or so if the tenant buys.
3. Rules may have changed since:- it use to be CGT free if lived in under 3yrs, after that a taper relief was applied. We sold just under 3rs, the accountant did say the taper relief would mean very little would be paid if we kept it a few more yrs.