Landlords, would you consider this if your tenants asked?

Another LL here. Are the pictures of the interior of the property on the Estate Agent website? Do they include pictures of your personal belongings? That may be a data protection issue. You can tell the Estate Agent that you didn’t give consent for the photographs and that you want any photos of the interior removed from their site.

Landlord here and if I was ever going to sell I would 💯 give the tenant first refusal. Think it very underhand that estate agent photos of your home with your things in it were taken and published online without you knowing. I wish you the best of luck, let us all know if he says yes.

We bought the house we were renting! Definitely make an offer even if lower than asking price and with exchange 6m from now.

It is a win win as the landlord doesn’t have to worry about the property being empty while waiting to be sold and will also save on agency fees. They will be able to leave all content as-is, no work to be done, nothing to take to the tip, etc. No chain to worry about.

As a buyer you won’t have any bad surprises (noise, boiler, electrics, neighbours, etc.) and you will likely get all the content for free or for a ridiculously low price (appliances, curtains…). And no move expenses, no admin hassle, no packing… You will get all your deposit back as well.

How much are you short on the deposit?

We bought our first house and didn’t have full deposit when we started the process, basically said we would by the time we needed to and the bank were fine with that. You only send the deposit when you exchange, if you’ve 80% and are confident you’ll have the rest by that point then I’d make an offer

As a landlord - absolutely offer !

landlord could have saved themselves an estate agent fee if spoken to you first ! You could just do the sale/purchase through solicitors!!

I would contact the landlord direct and make that point. Depending on reason for sale they might be happy to wait the 12 weeks until their estate agent contract times out!

I completely understand that legally I am not entitled to be told when the LL is selling
Is this true? You are going to be strongly impacted by this to say the least, and are within your rights to refuse viewings if not arranged in advance so part of that should be to have the decency to tell you!
(Though this did happen to a neighbour who was renting, they found out by the 'for sale' board going up, when contacted the landlord said they could stay till it was sold, but they left immediately to live with inlaws and he had an empty property with no rental income for several months. They did say when leaving that if he had told them in advance he was intending to sell, they may have stayed on but he was so underhand they did not trust him so left)

@Britinme please stop posting something you obviously know nothing about.

There is nothing legally enforceable that can be done if a tenant changes the locks. They only have to put the original locks back in or provide LL with keys to new locks when they leave, or LL can make a claim for cost if locksmith/new locks. I always changed locks when renting.

OP absolutely should change the locks without delay as LL has proved that he/his agents have been entering without prior permission.

The law does not allow landlords to conduct viewings without the tenants permission. They must request permission and can be denied. They would then have to seek court permission, at which point they may as well just evict.

Edited to say - I can’t imagine a court granting permission?!

Definitely negotiate on price.

Landlord needed your permission for estate agent to enter property to value.

This wasn’t an inspection, nor a maintenance emergency and as you’re not in the last 2 months of your tenancy as you haven’t been issued a Section 21, you have no obligation to allow viewings if that’s what in your tenancy agreement. Even if it is, you don’t have to allow them as right to quiet enjoyment trumps what’s in the tenancy agreement and I certainly wouldn’t have ransoms invading your privacy as you don’t need a LL reference.

You really hold a lot of cards here OP. Don’t feel like you’re powerless.

You can talk to your landlord about potentially purchasing the property in 6 months. If he’s not willing, tell him and the agent to take down the photos of the property dressed with your belongings. I rented for a while and the agents asked to come and take photos to put it up for sale, I said use the ones they had when we rented it. oh but it looks much nicer with your furniture. Yeah I know it does, but I paid for it so no.

You can really waste a lot of his time if you dig your heels in. And it could cost him a lot to evict you.

So don’t offer more rent. And negotiate on the price.

I was a landlord and I wouldn’t think of not telling my tenant that I was considering selling. I did sell the house I rented, and I met the tenant in person and discussed this and came to an arrangement.

I would contact the LL straight away and invite them to enter into some kind of discussion, if possible face to face and it’s easier to be more cooperative that way. You don’t have to let viewings in so really the LL is better off working with you. Plus houses take 6 months plus to sell.

So the landlord has allowed entry to the property to get it valued without your agreement/permission?

Absolutely do NOT offer to pay more rent.

Email the landlord/letting agent and tell them that it’s come to your attention that the property had been put for sale as you’ve had people at your door wanting to view the property. You are very confused and shocked at this as you did not not give permission for entry to value and take interior photos of the property. The photos contain your personal possessions, this is an invasion of privacy and you want them removed immediately. You will not be giving permission for viewings to take place as you have a right to quiet enjoyment of the property. If the landlord wishes to offer you the opportunity to purchase the property, you may be willing to negotiate a price.

If LL refuses to negotiate, await Section 21. State you will not be leaving without a court order which will take at least 6 months but are still open to negotiation on purchasing the property as the landlord will not be able to market the property until you’ve left which will take a further 3-6 months.

If that fails you’ll have to look for an alternate property and at least you’ll have time to get deposit together.

You won’t need a LL reference if you’re buying so I’d have no issue with dragging it out and causing the LL a problem as they’re obviously the type to treat decent, long standing tenants like absolute shit!

LL here - and about to write to all my tenants to see if they are interested in buying as I know I want to sell a couple this year

They have acted very badly with regard to letting themselves in, not telling you, not repairing things, expecting viewings!

If you were my tenant and offered to buy in 6 months I would be delighted!

Hope you get a positive reply

He has shat all over your rights to privacy assuming he has been in and had photographs taken without your permission. Completely out of order.

Definitely ask, in so many ways it's a path of least resistance for him. But unless you're in a position to make an offer now, he will naturally want to still move to market it so that he can make sure he has multiple options on the table. What isn't cool is lack of warning about people coming to take photos. That's not allowed without notice.

Definitely let the landlord know that you are interested. Definitely DON'T offer increased rent!

If you could realistically consider buying in about six months, that's great.

I looked at a tenanted property as a buyer last year. The vendor was selling it either tenanted or untenanted. They'd given a date about ten months away for vacant sale. It put me off as I was looking for a place to live, and didn't want to be the cause of someone else having to leave the property that they were renting. So it's not an easy market for selling a property that's currently tenanted. And as you say, you know the place's foibles (e.g. repairs needed) and still want to buy it, whereas new buyers might pull out when they find out things like that.

If I was in the owner's position, I'd be delighted to get an offer from you.

It's definitely worth asking the landlord, OP. Many years ago, my landlord put the entire building (3 flats) on the market and dropped round to tell the tenants in person and give us 3 months notice. When I said I wished I could afford to buy it, he said well obviously he wouldn't expect me to pay anywhere near the full asking price. Sadly I had zero savings at the time, or I'd probably still be there. 😢

Financial issues are complicated and unique to every LL. AND I would say there is no harm in asking. But to be honest: To Sell a property with ' Sitting Tenants' is near on IMPOSSIBLE so you've got MONTHS SND MONTHS anyway.
AND in reality you could even be A TENANT FROM HELL in the process of kicking this complicated can down the road. LL should be kicking your BOOTS now to facilitate a tricky sale with You in it.

You can’t do any harm by asking. If I was the LL I would accept.

How much can you raise now?

would speaking to a solicitor, and getting them to write to your landlord outlining the offer, reminding the landlord that the tenancy hasn’t come to an end, how is your possessions plastered all over the internet, Express your concern as to who has been in your safe space

it will take him six months to get u out, and you are not lying that you have been there x amount of years, and if prospective buyers assume there is thousands required in repairs

there is more than one way to skin a cat, and save your money to get the deposit not pay extra rent

100% I would. Would rather sell to my tenants than anyone else and it would eliminate agent fees too as it could be a private sale.

Don't know if this is of any help but homes aren't selling so easily in the current financial climate, it may well take up to 6 months for the LL to sell the property. My old LL put the flat up for sale in June of last year and it still hasn't sold yet. Might be worth trying to negotiate something with your LL and see if he might hold off for 6 months, explain to him you already have the bulk of the deposit (show bank statements for peace of mind) and that you would love to buy the house. Or maybe even see if he would knick the price down for a quick sale.

This is not true.

There is nothing wrong with changing the locks. There is plenty of case law that makes it clear that it is not considered criminal damage. Landlords are free to advertise their property for sale whenever they like, but no, they are not supposed to let themselves in without informing the tenant first, take photos and publish them online!

And if they haven't carried out the basic legal responsibilities involved in being a landlord (ensuring gas appliances are checked annually, that tenants' deposits are properly protected in a scheme, etc) then they may end up discovering that the process of getting rid of the tenant isn't as quick and cheap as they would like it to be, especially if they're aiming for a quick sale....

If the house has the problems that you describe, and you also think the asking price is quite high, you could try sticking in a bit of a low offer and see what happens. If he accepts lower, it will take less time to get your deposit together. But to put in a credible offer you should get a mortgage in principle to demonstrate to the LL that you are a viable buyer.
Your LL has shot himself in the foot by not asking you first as he would have avoided EA fees. Now they he has instructed an EA, he will still have to pay their fees even if he agrees a sale with you directly. He doesn't sound like a good LL at all.