Landlords, would you consider this if your tenants asked?

When my mum dies I will become a reluctant landlord, and will sell. I'd bite the arm off the tenant if she wants to buy it (and would feel a whole lot less guilty about selling).

But there are so many red flags here. If your windows won't shut and there are gas issues, the survey required by your lender is at risk. And as someone else pointed out, the LL could pocket the extra rent and still not sell to you.

It's highly unlikely that the estate agent has put the house on their books without visiting it. Which means that they and your LL have entered the house without permission. So I would visit them and ask if they know that there's a tenant in situ.

And yes, contact shelter about your rights.

I assume he is selling with you still in it as you haven't been given notice to quit? You legally do not have to let anyone in to view, even if that is in your tenancy agreement it's very difficult to enforce.

Again not a landlord. But if i were absolutely id agree 100%. As a tenant you'd be aware of any issues so would be fairly straightforward.

Do you have Proof of funds, can show you'll be ready to proceed etc.

I would definitely speak to the landlord you don't ask you don't get.

If it's a typical LL interest only mortgages the OP won't have paid half of the LL mortgage, or indeed even one penny of it. It is so annoying when uninformed people repeat this rubbish.

Has your LL been into the property with out your knowledge or consent to take photos or have photos taken after a repaint or of empty rooms been used?

You don’t have to accept viewings and in your situation I wouldn’t. Owners can sell with tenants in situ but only in cases where the tenants have agreed to allow viewings & agreed to move out before Exchange of contracts. It’s still more risky for the buyer though than a property without tenants in.

Your LL has not handled this well at all. You could be furious with him. However, I would try to keep the relationship amicable while you’re trying to propose a deal. I would talk to him about the possibility of buying the property in 6 months, he may be very interested in that idea. No way would I be offering him extra rent though! You need to save hard right now. Either for this property or if that doesn’t work out, to buy another.

If he doesn’t play nice then I would go full bitch and refuse to co operate with him in any way. No viewings, no moving out for several months. Tell him you will move out when you can find suitable alternative accommodation.

I'm a LL and I'm not selling any of my property. However if I wanted to sell I'd always make my tenant aware and offer them a decent price as if I sold to them privately I'd save EA fees so I'd offer that to the tenant as a discount provided they were a decent tenant. I'd wait 6 months for them to finish saving up the deposit too.

@DesperateTenant

YANBU to ask, and as a landlord previously, I'd have bitten your hand off in a situation where my property was well maintained. In his situation I'd have definitely been happy to sell it to you.

I owned rentals overseas, so I'm not sure if the laws here, but surely he's not entitled to post photos on the internal with YOUR belongings in show? Not to allow someone to take them without your knowledge???

id find out the situation re that first.

secondly, be very sure you only offer what it's actually worth. You don't want to end up in negative equity.

DO NOT offer more rent. There's no need. It'll be less towards your deposit (& if this doesn't work out you'll be very pissed off). Keep saving as much as you can.

id actually back foot him by putting in an offer. He's a snake not telling you himself. Id see what I thought the house was actually worth (after getting surveys etc) then offer 15% below that.

best wishes. Dont let him screw you over!!

Do you actually want to buy that house or would you prefer to save and buy something else?

@DesperateTenant please first say to your landlord that to your surprise someone knocked the door for a viewing and that you are interested to purchase the property and you are in contact with a mortgage advisor so ask him to please to pause the viewings for a couple of weeks till you get a mortgage offer on principle.

Contact a mortgage advisor today. They will find you solutions , I know a guy who didn't have enough money for the deposit and the mortgage advisor arranged for him a small loan to cover the difference he was missing for the deposit.

I am sure you have options but you need act fast and investigate. Sales take long time so just show your interest and that you are committed. If you can gather what you are missing for the deposit in only 6 months it shouldn't be a lot of money.

That’s a sure-fire way to make sure they pick someone else to sell to - if someone tried to be ‘smart’ I wouldn’t sell to them on principle.

Who knows? LL might need 200k for whatever reason in a few weeks.
It's their house, at the end of the day.

I'm a private landlord (my Dad's house) and, if I wanted to sell, I would definitely offer it to my tenants first. To me, that would be the most sensible and considerate thing to do. I've had my tenants for a good few years now and they are extremely good tenants. So I try to be a good landlord. I always repair or replace things when needed. I also don't take rent from them in December. My advice would be to approach your landlord and ask, if he says no, you're no worse off. But if you have a good relationship with him, he should at least hear you out and maybe negotiate with you to get a satisfactory outcome for you both. You definitely are NOT being unreasonable though! Good luck x

I don't see how you can accumulate that much extra deposit in 6 months if you can afford to pay that extra rent? Are you waiting for an inheritance or something?

I would be very careful. A house that has had no maintenance for 13 years probably needs a lot of work. Replacing all the windows for a start. If you have money maybe buy a different house?

THIS!

Definitely ask, but please DO NOT offer to pay him additional rent in the meantime. He sounds like a utter cock and could pull out last minute, having pocketed a load of extra cash from you.

Why would you let anyone who just knocks for a viewing? Especially if you’d had no idea it was for sale.

definitely explain to landlord you’d like to purchase, but he might not agree as you can back out

Well no they don't have this choice because they can't just tip the OP out and change her for a more amenable tenant! The OP needs to stay put as long as she can whether she buys this place or not. If she can't buy this place she needs to stay as long as she can to find somewhere else to rent or buy.

I think what SaturdayGiraffe means by he can have a choice of tenant who will help sell the house or one who will not, she means the OP can be helpful or not, depending on how she is treated.

The fact that a) the photos were taken without your permission, and b) it's on the market and he's not even told you, is just terrible. What awful behaviour from your LL. Are they recent photographs? Do they have your things in the pictures? It wouldn't be so bad if they were old photos from before you moved in, but terrible if they're new.

I would definitely say you'd be willing to buy it. My mother sold the house she let out, and offered it to the tenants for first refusal. There are some good LLs out there. Although if he's looking for a quick sale then you might not be in luck. We can hope!

You won't get if you don't ask so try. LL should've at least mentioned it to you given your a long term tenant what an ass they are for not.unless the sale if because of financial woes and they need a quick sale then your a bit stuck.

Not decent at all.

I would but I'd want proof.
It's outrageous there's pictures on Rightmove. It's illegal for LL to come in without asking you.
When were they taken?

If thats the case and LL sells without disclosing that - the buyers could sue him loads for their time/costs and losses.

You can only ask. The landlord can chose to say yes or no.

I think it was unfair not to inform you the house was going up for sale. When I had tenants in my house that I was going to sell, I phoned them to explain our situation in full, and then agreed a convenient time with them for estate agents to do valuations, etc. In the end, the tenants bought the house off us, but they did so straight away. If they had asked us to wait 6 months I would have said no as it wouldn't have had a massive impact on our own plans. It was back in 2022 when houses were going like hot cakes so we knew we could sell within days on the open market.
We weren't landlords of a big property portfolio, we just rented our only house out for a year while we went away. When we got back, we needed to sell so we could buy in a different city that we were going to settle down in.

I think it’s worth asking your LL, as he would save on estate agent fees by selling privately to you, whic would make it worth his while to wait the 6m?