Can I rent our house out to buyers before completion?

[wherethewildthingis]

Hi, I don't know a huge amount about property so hopefully someone can advise.
We have sold our second property which was rented out. First time buyers, no chain either side but it it taking ages, for reasons I don't understand. Solicitors seem to be very slow.
The tenant has moved and the house is sitting empty. I'm considering offering to rent to the buyer so they can move in now.
I'm just aware that not many people seem to do this and I wonder if that is because of some pitfall that I'm not aware of?
They have all their mortgage etc in place, I've no reason to be concerned that the sale won't go through.

I know people that have bought the house they've been renting so it's possible, one for your solicitor I'd imagine.

Short answer is no.

If they move in prior to completion and there is a mortgage involved then their interest in the property overrides that of the mortgage company and they cannot get evicted essentially should they default on their mortgage payments (repossession). You also need to sell with vacant possession if they refuse to complete you then have sitting tenants you can't evict either I believe. It's been a while and I have forgotten all the facts but think that's on the right track. I'll let someone else tell me I'm not quite right.

No don’t do it. They need to get onto their solicitor to move the sale forward. If you rent to them you’re opening yourself up to many problems if the sale doesn’t go through in the end.

Thanks, I felt that must be the case but it's good to know. Just so frustrating waiting!!

@OpEd, that's the other way round - the renters were already 'sitting tenants'.

I was told by a solicitor to not let the purchaser have entry into the house, or even put any items in, on the completion day until she confirmed that the money have been transferred.

Why is the sale taking longer than you'd like? Quite apart from the legal stuff mentioned by pps I'd be concerned that delays might mean there is some issue and the last thing you want is having tenants in your property if the sale falls through (especially since if that's the case the tenants may well not be inclined to make things easy for you). Even if the sale does not go ahead having the buyers as tenants will make it harder for you to push back if they start making unreasonable demands (eg. I have known buyers try to insist late on in the process that sellers do repair/upgrade work that was obvious when they made an offer and reflected in the price).

It's frustrating isn't it!

Saying that, our vendors moved into their new house before completing but that was family selling to family so slightly different situation.

We're buying a flat at the moment, it's an empty property with no chain and it's being held up by the searches, everything has been ready to go for at least a month. Everything is just taking longer.

We had it the other way. Bought a flat as a BTL. Owners relocation got delayed so they stayed for 2 months after sale had gone through and paid market rent. The estate agent who sold it handled rental. Not sure our solicitor got involved. We were happy as we got rent from day one and only a limited void period as we searched for new tenants whilst old owners were there. Old owners had security until their relocation happened. Win-win in our case.

Years ago, we sold our house and our new house wasn't ready.

So the buyers rented our own house out to us on a 6 month let. It was bliss!
And our new house was then ready slightly earlier, like a week or so, and to move slowly was great!

No -you either sell or rent - don't mix up the two.

The other way around, I let our vendors stay for 4 days after completion, because work on their new house a short distance away wasn’t quite finished.
My solicitor had a pink fit!

And the utter bitch then took down nearly all the curtain rails and a few other things that were screwed to the wall, even though she knew I’d be moving in on my own with a young baby. (Dh working abroad.)
She was evidently getting her revenge for us having beaten her down on the price.