Living in sold house after completion
Living in sold house after completion
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Boosh-36

Original Poster:

65 posts

120 months

Thursday 13th February
quotequote all
We've sold our house to first time buyers and they want to complete before the new stamp duty rates come in end of March, as it'll save them £6k.

The people living in the house we've bought won't be out of it until the middle of April.

The people who're purchasing our house have said they are happy for us to stay in the house until our sellers are out mid-April.

Are there any issues with doing this we should be aware of? As long as buyer/seller have contracts signed and dates reflect the above, I imagine it'll be OK. Any advice welcomed, big thanks.

lizardbrain

2,909 posts

53 months

Thursday 13th February
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I'm guessing if they offer you in writing, there are no issues for you, it will takes months to legally evict you

However it's a terrible idea and i can't magine their solicitor permitting it if they are any good?

bennno

13,957 posts

285 months

Thursday 13th February
quotequote all

Id be very surprised if there solicitor suggests thats ok, if theres a mortgage involved then id suggest theres zero change of a solicitor suggesting that is ok.

tomsugden

2,368 posts

244 months

Thursday 13th February
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Just go to a nearby Airbnb for a couple of weeks and put everything you don't need in storage. Much easier for everyone, we are probably going to do the same so as not to screw everyone below us in the chain.

Cow Corner

575 posts

46 months

Thursday 13th February
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We did this when the Covid stamp duty cut was coming to an end (we were selling but not buying yet)

Take legal advice, but as far as I saw it, the risk all sits with the buyer in this situation. Our buyers were mortgage free though, so that probably made it easier, a mortgage co might take a different view!

Help78

40 posts

68 months

Thursday 13th February
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Like a previous poster says I would be very surprised if their Solicitor doesn't raise this as a big red flag to them but if the money is critical to them they may well override this advice.

I know a young couple moving from their first to their second home and I was surprised at how close they were cutting it financially. Foregoing searches and surveys, loading up credit cards and borrowing from family members to get it across the line.

As for the risk to yourself, you have to consider all the things that could happen to the house during this time and what the consequences are... This could range from spilling a glass of red wine on the living room carpet to the boiler breaking beyond repair to a burst water pipe causes significant damage or a fire taking the whole place down.

Who is then responsible for the ensuing fallout, the new owners will want reimbursed, possibly compensated.

Personally (assuming funds allow) I'd look at what the financial benefit is to the purchaser, consider what moving into an airbnb etc. would cost you (factor in the added headache as well) and propose giving them some money to delay the completion to a date that suits yourself but also softens the loss of the stamp duty saving to them.

I'm assuming you are exchanging contracts at a date prior to the completion date.

ThingsBehindTheSun

2,141 posts

47 months

Thursday 13th February
quotequote all
What happens if you sell your house and the house you are buying falls through?

Personally there is no way I would do this to potentially save someone else £6K for no benefit to me, remember no good deed goes unpunished.

alscar

6,515 posts

229 months

Thursday 13th February
quotequote all
I would very much doubt the purchasers Solicitor would even agree to this.
As already stated you would need some form of contract to protect yourself ( and your purchaser ) but there is also then the issue of what happens should for whatever reason your own purchase not go through.
The “ easiest “ solution would be to try and get your purchase timetable onto the same footing.

bennno

13,957 posts

285 months

Thursday 13th February
quotequote all
ThingsBehindTheSun said:
What happens if you sell your house and the house you are buying falls through?

Personally there is no way I would do this to potentially save someone else £6K for no benefit to me, remember no good deed goes unpunished.
They seem to be getting the significant benefit of somebody else paying for their house, but allowing them to continue to live in it.

Solicitors wont permit this, as below, x10 if a mortgage is involved.

Boosh-36

Original Poster:

65 posts

120 months

Friday 14th February
quotequote all
Really helpful, thanks for the comments. I'll put it back in their court and recommend they get proper legal advice.

TownIdiot

3,527 posts

15 months

Friday 14th February
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bennno said:
ThingsBehindTheSun said:
What happens if you sell your house and the house you are buying falls through?

Personally there is no way I would do this to potentially save someone else £6K for no benefit to me, remember no good deed goes unpunished.
They seem to be getting the significant benefit of somebody else paying for their house, but allowing them to continue to live in it.

Solicitors wont permit this, as below, x10 if a mortgage is involved.
If there is a residential mortgage then of course it wouldn't be allowed, but if there's no mortgage then it's not the solicitors place to "permit".
They can advise, in this case strongly advise and maybe even call the idea "stupid" but if the purchaser is OK with it they could do go through with it.

Arkose

3,544 posts

169 months

Friday 14th February
quotequote all
Boosh-36 said:
Really helpful, thanks for the comments. I'll put it back in their court and recommend they get proper legal advice.
why not knock off the extra ££ off the price ? and stay in the house...

scot_aln

598 posts

215 months

Friday 14th February
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We did exactly this but for just a week and the estate agent pulled together some sort of short term rental agreement. They were benefiting from 2 in the chain so were eager to make anything happen.

Granadier

873 posts

43 months

Friday 14th February
quotequote all
When I bought my first place in 1999, the sellers had some sort of issue and asked if they could stay on in the flat a couple of days past completion. They were a bit naughty as they had my phone number and asked me directly without either set of solicitors knowing. I agreed as it didn't make any difference to me, I still had my room at my parents'. I was a bit worried in case any problem came of it, but it was fine.

Thinking about it, if there's a chain and all the deals complete on the same day, it must be quite a challenge getting all the legal processes for every deal to co-ordinate.

Jeremy-75qq8

1,408 posts

108 months

Friday 14th February
quotequote all
I have done this. We in effect rented the property back for 6 months.

You need to arrange this with the agent and the buyer not the lawyers. As soon as you do there will be a world of pain.

1. Your lawyers need to conform to the purchasers lawyers vacant possession. In this scenario they can't.

2. The buyers won't have a buy to let mortgage which they would require to let it.

This will kill the deal.

So if the buyer will agree do it on the quiet but if not there is really close to no chance that the lawyers will ever agree to it

A first time buyer will ( rightly to be fiar) want their lawyers approval.

Air bnb is your friend.

Bobtherallyfan

1,429 posts

94 months

Friday 14th February
quotequote all
Good luck with getting any insurance cover for that scenario…

gotoPzero

19,120 posts

205 months

Friday 14th February
quotequote all
Simple solution is split the 6k 50/50 and you move out, where you go is not their problem or for how long - you just need to make the 3k cover it - but like I said not their problem.


TA14

13,110 posts

274 months

Friday 14th February
quotequote all
gotoPzero said:
Simple solution is split the 6k 50/50 and you move out, where you go is not their problem or for how long - you just need to make the 3k cover it - but like I said not their problem.
I think that this might be the basis for a solution but it might mean double moving costs (or plus 50% if the boxes go into storage for a fortnight,) so a 65/35 split in the OP's favour might be fair. (Of course then the buyers might think that it's not worth it to save them £2K but that's their choice - I assume that they can't complete on another property in the timeframe so you have a strong hand.)

megaphone

11,241 posts

267 months

Saturday 15th February
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Why would the op want to give up £3k just to help the buyers swerve some tax? Unless it means the sale will fall through I'd let them suck it up,.

blueg33

41,749 posts

240 months

Saturday 15th February
quotequote all
scot_aln said:
We did exactly this but for just a week and the estate agent pulled together some sort of short term rental agreement. They were benefiting from 2 in the chain so were eager to make anything happen.
It will have been a licence to occupy.

But the ops purchasers would be unwise to go down this route. It is very hard to evict residential occupiers.