Selling a house

[polester]

My Missis has a house that she rents out a couple of hours away from us. She has a tenant in at the moment but is wanting to sell it this year. The tenant is on a rolling contract. I've never sold a house before only bought, I guess we need to find a estate agent to handle any viewings, but what do we do about the tenant, I believe we have to give her 2 months notice, I'm thinking it will be easier to sell unoccupied and it also means we can re-decorate through out. Any advice would be helpful as like I said we're both green with this and don't want to get our pants pulled. Thanks

[Jaymo]

Check the terms of her lease- it might include a clause whereby she has to agree to viewings organised by the landlord if 24hrs notice given for the purpose of sale of the property.

To me as a buyer it is always preferable to not have a tenant installed in case they become problematic when notice is served, but I believe this is rare but did come across this recently when looking for a tempo rental, the current tenants were making it difficult for viewings as they didn't want to leave.

[wandringstar]

oh yeh, it has to be unoccupied, a sitting tenant has massive rights.

 

I did a job for someone yesterday, he has lived in the same house since 1953, paying rent.

 

Sometimes you have to get your chequebook out and pay them off.

[daveboy]

Have a look at the lease....I use standard lease from landlords association ...Two months notice to them

and they have to give me one month.(short term lease 6 months to 2 year)

Edited January 11, 2017 by daveboy

[polester]

It's a standard 6mth lease from the landlords association that has now gone to a rolling contract. How do you go about choosing a good estate agent? all the ones I had dealings with don't seam to be on the ball, missing paperwork or incorrect details on the paperwork. The main problem we have is the house is a couple of hours drive so we're relying on the agents to sort the sale for us.

Edited January 11, 2017 by polester

[Lloyd90]

I too have heard the term "sitting tenant" and understand it's a minefield.

 

You need to understand the exact rights of the tenant in your specific situation as it can massively complicate things.

 

Then again a friend of mine has just bought a flat with the tenant already there and was very happy to do so.

[100milesaway]

I had this exact same problem with tenants on a short term lease, they did not want to move and made it difficult to show people around for the agent.They had smelly house rabbits hopping around, the sink filled with smelly dishes,and wet washing creating condensation everywhere which resulted in a few months to finally get access.and them to leave the house.Once they left the house it took about 3 months to spruce the place up but there was always the deep seated smell of neglect.The insurance company insisted that I left the heating on at least 15 degrees in the winter but even with the spruce up it took lots longer to sell than i expected and i had to pay full rates on the property until it finally sold.. Good luck, and make sure you or someone does regular checks on the place. from Auntie.

[wandringstar]

my stepdad inherited a house in London 35 years ago, it had been poorly run and rents hadent been paid to the previous owner, (his mother), they, the tenants took the mickey out of her. So when he got it, he managed to get rid of all of them as they were in such arrears, and just wrote it off, but one person wouldn't go, he owed a bomb, but the only real way to get shot of him was to pay him to go. In the 20 years he had the place, he had loads of aggro and was just pleased to sell it on and get on with his life.

 

I am not saying this will happen to you, things are hopefully better nowadays, trouble is, when someone says they wont go, the law is the only option and its an ***. (donkey and mule)

Edited January 11, 2017 by wandringstar

[Mungler]

Provided the assured short hold tenancy (AST) was entered into after the commencement of the "96 Housing Act and is in proper (standard) form then forget all this talk about protected tenancies.

 

There are still some old 1977 Rent Act tenancies (because in the right circumstances there were succession rights) and the bad days of people forgetting to serve prior notice (or losing evidence of serving prior notice) under the "85 Housing Act are long gone.

 

Under current rules, outside of the fixed term the tenant has now rolled into a periodic tenancy and the OP will need to serve a S21 Notice giving 2 months clear notice - have a gander at one from Oyez.

 

The big but is that for a S21 notice to be valid the landlord must be contractually and statutory compliant - this means the tenants deposit must have been protected (if not returned), prescribed notice relating to the deposit properly served, all certificates in place and current etc e.g. Gas

 

Any omission or defect will invalidate the S21 notice and the process will then have to restart.

.

Edited January 11, 2017 by Mungler

[wandringstar]

if a tenant refuses to leave on a valid s21, they are legally allowed to stay until the courts evict, it can be 8 weeks, if the tenant is applying for council accommodation, they are told to stay in the property until eviction, otherwise they will be classed as voluntary homeless and wont qualify.

 

it happens all the time.

[BreweryGrunt]

Wife and I had an initial 6 month contract which we then switched to rolling contract for the last two years. Our landlord has decided to sell and gave us two months notice. We understood the possibility of this happening when we went to a rolling contract and there is no bad feelings towards our landlord. She wrote us a letter explaining she was recently widowed and to thank us for being good tenants. She gave us first refusal to buy the house before it went on the market. Unfortunately we are not yet in the position to buy but it was nice of her to ask us

Edited January 14, 2017 by BreweryGrunt

[Lloyd90]

if a tenant refuses to leave on a valid s21, they are legally allowed to stay until the courts evict, it can be 8 weeks, if the tenant is applying for council accommodation, they are told to stay in the property until eviction, otherwise they will be classed as voluntary homeless and wont qualify.

 

it happens all the time.

If they do stay upto court eviction however are they still liable for the rent whilst they are in occupancy?

If so I imagine this would be recoverable in small claims court? (Or they would just keep paying until evicted?)

Edited January 15, 2017 by Lloyd90

[Archie-fox]

I'm planning on selling one of mine at the moment..

 

I've got to give the Tennant 2 months notice, I want the house empty so there can be no mistakes when it comes to showing people around, my tennant is a great person but I'm not sure she would be up for showing people around a house she loves and doesn't want to leave..so she will have to go..