Landlord showing around buyers in our family home flat :(

[Dragontale]

Our landlord wants to sell our flat. We've been here 16 years and are raising our children here.

Firstly, we'd actually like to buy it ourselves and it would be possible for us financially. The reason we didn't ask to buy it was that we didn't realise it was up for sale.

We're gutted. I'd really like some advice from you please.

How can we get the potential buyer to pull out? We'd like to buy the flat ourselves without going into a bidding war.

Not sure if this makes a difference but the landlord is an investment fund, not a private BTL landlord.

AIBU to think we could get the landlord to sell to us instead? And if you know what we could do please let me know

Don't get another real estate to give you their evaluation! Complete waste of time. Just look at sites for similar houses in your area to get a rough idea. Ultimately its down to the LL what they want to either list it for or sell to you for.

The mortgage lender will arrange a valuation

yeah you nailed it I'm afraid. We just heard that the landlord wants to sell the whole block, not individual flats.

so glad it worked out for you! We're in the same situation that we dream of owning this place and have so many memories here. Unfortunately the owner is an investment fund and they don't really care about our family memories 😂😭

So one investment fund is selling a portfolio of property (your block and possibly more buildings) to another investment fund? Who has indicated that any individual flats are for sale to tenants/others at all? You will probably continue to be tenants as previously, just paying the rent to a new landlord. If of course you are in a position to buy and the fund is prepared to entertain offers then there is nothing to stop you enquiring but in a fully-tenanted block owned by a property fund this is probably not an option.

Well since don’t know how much has been offered you don’t know this. Work out what deposit/ mortgage you could raise/ afford and compare that to the asking price. Then decide how much you want to offer.

It won’t harm to point out to the agent that selling to you will make the process much easier since they won’t have to serve you with an eviction notice to get you to leave and run the risk that you won’t refuse to go until forced out by bailiffs. pPoint out also that viewings are at your discretion since you have the legal right to “ quiet enjoyment” - that is the legal term, of your home.

Speak to the agent in the first place, they have a legal obligation to pass on genuine offer to the current owners. Technically you would be chain free, another thing in your favour.

How many flats in the block? The trouble with selling individually is that flats are usually leasehold and you need a management company to buy and manage the freehold, unless they set up a shared freehold arrangement.

There's nothing to offer on. An institutional investor is selling an entire building and there is no agent to speak to because no flats are for sale, now that the OP has explained further what is happening.

Normally an institional landlord has to write to you to inform you of the sale and offer the flat to you. This is called the right of first refusal. I can highly recommend joining the Facebook National Leasehold Group (NLC, Katie Kendrick is one of the owners). It's a big group and might also help with questions around leasehold (presuming this would be the case for a flat).

god no - just send the level-headed message someone suggested above!

Ah just saw update - maybe worth still contacting them but not likely :(

I think it's in my tenancy contract with tenants that they should allow new tenants to look round if they're leaving and potential buyers if I want to sell. But I'm sure they could refuse and there's not much I could do!

Only if they have a long lease I believe. Not if they are just renting on a short tenancy. But worth checking.
If enough flats in the building have long leases over 21yrs they might collectively have rights but doesn't necessarily sound like that's the case.

Generally they only do that after you've agreed a price; and it is nearly always exactly that value!

Contact the landlord and tell them you are interested. I would really advise going down the route of trying to get the funds/mortgage in principle, in place, letting the landlord know you want to buy and hopefully it will be straight forward. He knows you, knows there's no chain etc. While there are situations where you can refuse viewings as tenants, the reality is that, unless someone is going to offer significantly more than you, probably you will be a good bet anyway, so pissing your landlord off to help ensure you get the flat seems wholly necessary.

I'd be the opposite and as obstructive as possible. If you can legally prevent viewings, do it, or make them as awkward as possible. It's in everyone's interest to sell to the sitting tenant, no chain, hard for them to walk away and unlikely to get any nasty surprises on a survey. A nightmare sitting tenant who knows their rights will put buyers off more than a nice compliant one, and with a faceless investment company, there's no one to butter up by being a pushover, they'll just want the fastest way to realise the most profit.

We got the impression that the fund wasn't really sure what to do with the block because one of the flats was on Rightmove for sale last year as a single unit (it didn't sell). That's why we assumed there would be some leeway to buy single units. Also the viewing request was just for our floor and we're keen to buy both flats on our floor (they're quite small). But yeah you're right I think right now it does seem like they want to sell the lot together.

thank you this is a great tip! Do they also have to offer to us if they're keen to sell the whole block as a unit?

thank you for the input! To answer your question there's 12 flats and a couple of offices

Right of first refusal only applies to the purchase of the freehold of the block - the freeholder has to offer the leaseholders the opportunity to purchase.

You are not a leaseholder, you're a tenant on what I assume is an assured shorthold tenancy (AST). If the landlord owns the whole block it's unfortunately likely they're selling it as a PRS/BTR scheme. They have no obligation to sell to anyone.

No idea but good luck. I hope you get the it

We don't have a contract. We had one for the first couple years and it never got renewed. When the block was sold there was also no contract done.

@LBOCS2 we don't have a contract so I think it's a periodic tenancy not an AST

thank you. It's not looking good at all but I appreciate your comment!

“Yes I think we'd have to make an offer, a bit gutted because now there's interest in the flat we'd have to offer more!”

On a property owned by an investment fund, the fund will want to maximise return to its shareholders so it will market widely. A private landlord probably has more incentive for it to be quick and simple than the absolute highest price.

However, chances are, the whole block is being sold and you will shortly have a new landlord. Be prepared that rents go up. You may want to check your old contract for what happens in change of control and you may want to get proper paperwork for the current situation