Tenants making viewings difficult

[areweonabreak]

We have a flat that we rent out. It was my DH’s flat before we met. It’s been rented out for 10 years now (by only 2 tenants) but we’re now in a position where our own house needs a lot of money spending on it and we want to free up some capital.

we do feel bad for the current tenant, we offered them first refusal to buy the flat (it’s on the market for £90k) but they cannot afford it (even though a mortgage would probably be cheaper than the rent but they’d another thread)

we’ve had a few viewings now but all the feedback is that the tenants have told them that they don’t want to move so they’re put off as they don’t want the hassle.

we live about a 40 minute drive away from the flat so the agents are sorting out all of the viewings. The agents have suggested that it might be easier to sell if it’s empty.

We’re really not sure what to do, they’re on a rolling monthly contract at the moment.

has anyone else been in this position before?

would anyone else recommend selling as a vacant property?

He wants to have his cake and eat it, he wants to get as much as he can possibly get for the property whilst at the same time not losing out on any rent money or having to pay any of the council tax himself.
Sounds like he's out of his depth and shouldn't have been a landlord in the first place 🤷

As if small private landlords are selling up because they're upset at people criticising them. Its because the wider financial and legal climate is making it more difficult for them, because BTL in particular is much harder to make add up than it was a decade or two ago. If we still had the taxation and legal frameworks we did twenty years ago you can bet landlords wouldn't be giving up profitable enterprise because people were having opinions they didn't like.

@x2boys more people do it than you think, we did it for long term tenants in one of our properties. i’m sure she’s made plenty of profit out of them, so why not?

Buy-to-let landlordism is predicated on low interest rates, once the cost of borrowing reverts to the norm they are massively overleveraged and it all crumbles

Exactly. It's about the bottom line.

You are clearly going to have to formally evict whatever happens so it would be sensible to start the ball rolling now and issue the appropriate paperwork.

Good for them - hope they make it as difficult as possible.

My landlord is also selling after ten years I'm gutted as I love it. It's been on the market for over a year and there's been around ten viewings. I make sure I'm out as I can't bear people looking round when I'm in and to be honest the estate agent have always asked if I'm going to be out anyway. It's never occurred to me to stay in. I figure it's that or I'll be asked to leave so it can be sold as vacant so I play ball. Hate it though.

Land lording is an investment activity, aka sitting back and making money out of other people's hard work.
Borrowing money to invest has always been a risky strategy and yet the government incentivised it, sorry landlords you've been set up by the government to take the hit when the housing market unwinds

agree with @ItchySnoof

Op you’re well within your rights to sell your property it’s ludicrous some of the responses on here. Like your providing some charitable service and these folks are Entilted to your propert as long at they wish.

serve notice, do it correctly, the tenants are going out of their way to ensure you can’t sell it , no one will buy it with a sitting tennant who doesn’t want to leave, and they are making sure viewers know it.

serve notice now and go through the process. Then sell it empty with no onward chain.

Your estate agents are pretty crap if they didn't advise you from day one that it would be much easier to sell an empty property than a property with tenants in situ.

You are naive if you think that all you have to do is give the tenants 2 months' notice to move out. Most people will move out by then but legally they don't have to. You have to wait until the 2 months is up and then go to court for a possession order. Once you have that, the vast majority will (or should) move out, but worst case scenario is that they stay after that and you have to go back to court for an eviction warrant. It can take months and months. Also, as AnyFucker said, you need to make sure the lettings agent did everything they were supposed to. See www.gov.uk/evicting-tenants/section-21-and-section-8-notices
Also this which is aimed at tenants but is helpful england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/eviction/section_21_eviction/how_long_a_section_21_eviction_takes

Op can’t win.
Doesn’t want to be a landlord anymore having fallen into it by circumstance.
Gets criticised for being a landlord and criticised for not wanting to be one anymore.

Do you actually believe the OP should undersell the property to give the ‘poor’ tenants a chance to get on the property ladder??

@MzHz indeed, and a lot of them seem to pop up on Mumsnet getting very indignant about tenants who won't keel over and keenly assist the landlord with viewings - (and therefore potentially make themselves homeless). Rents are astronomical in some areas and they would probably have to pay more as a new tenant in another property, that's if they can even find anywhere. Plus of course moving costs a lot, a new deposit to be found before you get the old one back, removal company or van hire, maybe a professional clean, maybe a week's overlap so 2 rents to pay, etc etc. Then the new landlord might want to sell next year, you're back in the same position with maybe 2 months notice.

But tenants should apparently be happy to suck that up, as 'it's not their property' the landlords bluster. Well no, it's the landlord's property but it's the tenant's HOME. Landlords, you should realise what a position of privilege you are in to have a home of your own and also to own the homes of one or more other human beings (tenants). They increase your wealth by paying rent and may never be in the position of owning themselves.

The very least you can do is to treat them with respect and fairness, with repairs and also with giving notice to them and asking them to facilitate viewings.

I know!

No idea ehy people are shotty. One would think people of mumsnet would joyfully help landlord put a property on the market for all that waiting forst time buyers put there as they always say they want on here!

Make up your minds. You either want all these properties on market for all them ftbs every claims can't get on the ladder at high prices or you want them rented. Can't have it both ways

She’s trying to NOT be a landlord you maniac. She’s trying to sell the property. And posters are actually saying, without a trace of irony, “it’s such a shame the tenants can’t afford to buy it. Why don’t you sell it at a reduced rate so they can buy it? They do so love living there. It would be a lovely thing to do and actually I think you’re rather a beast for not doing it.”

Absolute insanity.

Doesn’t want to be a landlord anymore having fallen into it by circumstance.

Having chosen to rent the flat out rather than selling when she and her husband met it is not 'falling into it by circumstance' - it was a choice.

Also, the reason they have this apparently ‘immoral’ situation of owning two properties, it because they each owned one when they got together. They’re hardly slum landlords soaking up cheap squalor properties and renting them out for inflated prices.

Some posters need to get a grip.

Damn typos

I have inherited my parents property - unsure ATM whether to move in or sell it. I also own my house - either property would make a great family home. I know there would be no shortage of prospective tenants for market rent but there's no way I'm risking what OP is going through now ie, being held to ransom when I want to sell. Not saying this would happen - my daughter lets two houses and the tenants are great - but it's just too risky with the upcoming changes to L&T law - impacts badly on both.

Evict them. (And ignore the people who think landlords are the devil incarnate). A stroppy tenant who is making viewings awkward would ring huge alarm bells for me - they probably won't leave, it'll drag on for months, they'll trash the place before leaving.

The law protects them. You'll have to wait til it's cleared if they're being tricky. It's part of the inbuilt risk of being a landlord, you're unreasonable to complain about it.

I've not read all the comments.

Issue a section 21. We moved abroad and let out our house. When the time came to sell, we tried to sell whilst the tenants were still in the property (they'd been served notice, or so we thought but that's another story). The photos were awful, there was dirty washing on the floor, no effort was made to tidy up for viewings, maybe they are entitled to writer enjoyment but would you want people to see that's how you live? In the end we waited until they went, did the repairs and redecorated (500 holes in the walls which they didn't repair 'because you've not left any paint') and then remarketed.

I’ve been a tenant when a landlord has been selling and wouldn’t dream of making it difficult to sell. We’re in a cost of living crisis and many landlords need to sell for various reasons. It’s crap having to move as your landlord is selling. Can you offer them an incentive? Reduce the rent whilst they are doing viewing? Have a good chat with them