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Buying a House With Tenants in Situ

5 replies

SanityAssassin · 01/02/2017 15:48

I want to buy a house to rent out as an investment. I've found one but it has Tenants in situ who are keen to stay (and the house is kept beautifully). Does this provide a massive headache for the buyer/new landlord - I don't want to get into a Legal minefield. Do I need a conveyancer who specialises in this? Obviously I would be leaving all the letting management etc to an agent as I am no expert. Am I being an idiot to even consider this?

Many thanks

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Allthebestnamesareused · 01/02/2017 18:22

No we bought one with a tenant in situ. Your solicitor should check the tenancy agreement as in effect you take with that tenancy agreement. We then actually asked the tenant to enter into a new agreement when the old one expired. The seller should transfer the deposit to you or back to the tenant who should then pay it to you and you should put it in a protection scheme. We managed it ourselves . Tenant had lived there 3 years and stayed on another 5.

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EssentialHummus · 01/02/2017 18:27

I agree with all - nothing inherently wrong with this, but you need to check the tenants and their payment history very closely. Check that your lender is happy with that type of tenant (HB, student, earnings, whatever).

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SanityAssassin · 01/02/2017 19:51

I don't need a lender so that's not a problem. I will find out who the current agent is and find out what I can (I suspect same agent as selling). I don't intend to manage any rental myself so I suspect I need my solicitor talking to the letting Agent I chose? (as well as me) I will definitely have a Solicitor checking all this so thank you for your advice - is there any specific questions I should be asking?

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specialsubject · 02/02/2017 11:31

How long have the tenants been there and under what terms?

If it is a very long time or not an ast you need to be very careful.

What is the epc rating? Below e and there is an issue coming.

You also need to get fully informed of your responsibilities as a landlord, agent or no agent. The buck stops with you.

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SanityAssassin · 02/02/2017 18:31

Tenants haven't been there ages - young couple/baby on an ast. The epc is E (older house) but has scope to improve and I have money to do this if needed in future. I'm looking at this as a long term investment for my kids future rather than having the money earning less than 1pc in a savings acct so quite happy to spend a bit of cash on the place if needed.

Thank you for all your advice.