Mortgage folk and landlords, some help please...

mrbios

mrbios

mrbios

Soldato
Joined
7 Jun 2003
Posts
16,199
Location
Gloucestershire
Currently i own a 1 bed flat in the middle of our local town, this is rented out through a letting agent for us and we have little to do with it beyond that.

The time has come where i want to sell it, but i currently have a tenant living in there and i don't want to kick them out to tell them i'm selling the place, as that leaves me without anyone paying the rent while it is on the market. So ideally what i'm after is a way of selling it where by it's only available to other prospective landlords, this way i keep my tenant and he keeps his home.

Is there anything like this available? or something along the same lines that wouldn't require me to kick out my tennant? Alternatively is there a way of selling a property without having to notify the tenant until the property is sold, then giving them their notice period from then? (as if a tennant realises a place is up for sale they'll likely move the moment they find a new home rather than waiting until the place is sold, causing me problems)

Also early repayment charges, i need to look through my paperwork but do they go down as the fixed rate gets later in to its life? or are they always a fixed penalty? I have 1 year 6 months remaining on my fixed rate mortgage but the financial side of things is stressing me out and i just want rid of it no matter what the short term cost may be!

Thank you for any advice, pretty sure i have more questions but i've forgotten them so i may add more.
 
Can't offer any experience in what you're asking but maybe try on some landlord forums, you may get a buyer.
 
Didn't even think of that, only managed to find 2 half decent/active ones and one has registrations suspended :( posted on another one anyway, but in the mean time any help anyone here can give me would be greatly appreciated
 
I'm glad you've completely considered your tenants position rather than simply want to find a way of selling without them "causing you problems".
 
Hades said:
I'm glad you've completely considered your tenants position rather than simply want to find a way of selling without them "causing you problems".
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Well as i rent myself i know how it feels to be shafted by a landlord, i wouldn't want to put that on someone if i can avoid it, but obviously in worst case scenario i have to consider the financial needs of my family before the tennant.

The solution to selling to another landlord would work best for all 3 parties involved....if it's possible
 
cm1179 said:
i thought hades was being sarcastic?
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If he was i don't see why...I think i'm being quite kind to the tennant by attempting to consider options that don't force them out of their home.

EDIT: ah re-read his reply, guess he was. Well here's the situation for you: I'm a bloke with a fiance and 10 month old baby to look after, my finances and home are more important than that of an early 20s single guy. Luckily though i'm not just going to attempt to chuck him out on the street, i simply don't want to lose £100s over having an empty flat for the duration of sale. Perfectly reasonable.
 
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my mortgage allows me to pay up to 10% of my mortgage value p/a before any charges are incurred
if you do sell to another 'landlord' they will hike the rent up i should imagine so you need to notify your tenant of your plans
 
Either way i intend to give the tenant the same amount of notice whether i was kicking him out or selling to another landlord, the tenant would have just as much time to find a new place to live or consider to stay with the new landlord in either situation. So i don't see why i would need to tell the tenant of my plans prior to implementing them if the given notice period is the same.
 
I would suggest a friendly chat with your tenant.

I am not a lawyer but I believe there must be something in law that states you must tell someone living in a property that you plan on selling it, simply becuase the tenant would need to know about the change of ownership and such like.

A friendly chat is what I would suggest first off at least if you decide to go down that road i would alway be up front about it. You might find out that the tenant is happy to live there until you find a buyer. You dont of course have to say anything until its 100% certain you are selling it.

Maybe explain the situation to a local estate agency and they will be able to offer a little more help.
 
mrbios said:
If he was i don't see why...I think i'm being quite kind to the tennant by attempting to consider options that don't force them out of their home.

EDIT: ah re-read his reply, guess he was. Well here's the situation for you: I'm a bloke with a fiance and 10 month old baby to look after, my finances and home are more important than that of an early 20s single guy. Luckily though i'm not just going to attempt to chuck him out on the street, i simply don't want to lose £100s over having an empty flat for the duration of sale. Perfectly reasonable.
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Ignore the bad remarks, it's par for the course :D The fact you're even considering your tenants' circumstances shows you to be a more considerate person than most. I can't recall the forum, will check history tomorrow but it was quite busy iirc.
 
If law is the reason then he'll be informed, if courtesy is the reason then it can wait until the law requires it. I'm not trying to be a **** i just have to do what is best for me and my family financially.

end of the day what does the tenant lose? a flat and either way is given time to find a new place and move out, and assuming he left it in a good condition he receives his entire deposit back.

What do i lose? £100s, unlike the pompus conservative party of the overclockers GD i don't have £1000s in savings, i don't have the spare cash to freely pay for a mortgage and rent at the same time for an extended period of time (for a while yes, but no more than the maximum time it usually takes to find a tenant when one leaves, then i slip in to debt)

The tenant loses a home at no cost beyond the cost to move his belongings, i lose a lot more than that, hence why i consider my position far more highly than his.

I will stick to the law and attempt to do the best i can for the tenant, but i will not prioritse his position over my own.

batsy said:
Ignore the bad remarks, it's par for the course :D The fact you're even considering your tenants' circumstances shows you to be a more considerate person than most. I can't recall the forum, will check history tomorrow but it was quite busy iirc.
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Make me feel bad for sounding selfish in my above text now :( That said, i will do what i can to make it as easy as possible for the tenant, but surely a man of sense can see why i have to do it as i wish to? (i still don't even know if it's possible!)

EDIT: i should probably add, if it was a family home or a couple it'd be an entirely different matter
 
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Surely you've missed a fairly obvious thing here.. If you sell the flat, regardless of if it's to another landlord the potential purchaser will want to view it.

In which case he's going to find out anyway!
 
mrbios said:
If law is the reason then he'll be informed, if courtesy is the reason then it can wait until the law requires it. I'm not trying to be a **** i just have to do what is best for me and my family financially.

end of the day what does the tenant lose? a flat and either way is given time to find a new place and move out, and assuming he left it in a good condition he receives his entire deposit back.

What do i lose? £100s, unlike the pompus conservative party of the overclockers GD i don't have £1000s in savings, i don't have the spare cash to freely pay for a mortgage and rent at the same time for an extended period of time (for a while yes, but no more than the maximum time it usually takes to find a tenant when one leaves, then i slip in to debt)

The tenant loses a home at no cost beyond the cost to move his belongings, i lose a lot more than that, hence why i consider my position far more highly than his.

I will stick to the law and attempt to do the best i can for the tenant, but i will not prioritse his position over my own.



Make me feel bad for sounding selfish in my above text now :( That said, i will do what i can to make it as easy as possible for the tenant, but surely a man of sense can see why i have to do it as i wish to? (i still don't even know if it's possible!)

EDIT: i should probably add, if it was a family home or a couple it'd be an entirely different matter
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Bolded the bit that annoys me, he loses more than that, namely any admin fees/referencing fees which nowadays is a minimum of £150, he'll also have a month (assuming that's the notice terms) to find another £800-1500 on top of that for deposit/rent in advance which for quite a few people will be a struggle.

Frankly the good thing to do would be to let him know that you're planning on selling, which surely you'll need to do once you start getting viewings and I can't see anyone buying the house without seeing it...

With an attitude like yours I kinda want the house to be empty for a prolonged period of time tbh
 
SKILL said:
Bolded the bit that annoys me, he loses more than that, namely any admin fees/referencing fees which nowadays is a minimum of £150, he'll also have a month (assuming that's the notice terms) to find another £800-1500 on top of that for deposit/rent in advance which for quite a few people will be a struggle.

Frankly the good thing to do would be to let him know that you're planning on selling, which surely you'll need to do once you start getting viewings and I can't see anyone buying the house without seeing it...

With an attitude like yours I kinda want the house to be empty for a prolonged period of time tbh
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Actually the lettings agent i deal with the landlord pays the admin fees out of the first months rent payment.

and most of the lettings agents around here it's a months deposit + first months rent, he'll get his deposit back from us, what does he have to save up bar maybe up to £100-200 depending on the cost of his new place? (if he has to pay his deposit prior to receiving the one back from us simply whack it on an overdraft until the other deposit comes back less than a month later to pay that off, it's not rocket science)
 
I'm with mrbios tbh. As long as he is giving the required notice period to his tenant, which he has clearly stated he will do, then that is enough.

I personally don't know what the requirements are in this situation, but i would suggest that talking to your letting agent would be a good place to start. They also will want the place occupied for as long as possible without falling foul of the law, so you have a common interest with them, and they will surely have come across this situation before...
 
Let them know informally, be supportive, then when you accept an offer and solicitors start talking to each other, serve 2 month notice (assuming the buyer isnt a buy to let)

You should keep the tenant happy as they could, in theory, refuse viewings etc, and give a bad impression of the flat...
 
Swifty55 said:
Maybe your tenant will be interested in buying the flat?
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I might try an informal chat, just see what he thinks, if it's of any interest for him or what his position would be should i look to sell to another landlord.

I can see why people would see that as a smart thing to do, i think i was just too stressed out last night to see it, had a really crap day.
 
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