To ask how to make rental flat less likely to sell?

[RainingPasta]

My son and his girlfriend have been renting a nice flat for the past couple of years but the LL now wants to sell it. They haven’t officially been given notice yet so it looks like the agent will be conducting viewings while they still live there.

They will still keep it clean and tidy but they are wondering if there is anything else they could do to make it less appealing. I suggested removing all their homely touches like cushions, rugs and pictures so it looks cold and bare but I’m not sure if that is a good idea?

Any suggestions would be appreciated. They want to delay the sale and might even be able to buy it themselves if it goes down enough in price.

No, but the presentation of a property does affect its impact on at least some potential purchasers. If that wasn’t the case then why do developers bother to stage their properties and why are there so many programmes on TV about it.

They may like it there but unless they can buy it, then they will need to accept they will need to move and not play silly games that could annoy the landlord into being unwilling to give them as reference later down the line when they need it. They have the option to find a new place and give notice to the landlord, wait until the landlord gives them notice and look for a new place or work out if there's any possibility of buying it.
They may not like it, but that is the reality of the situation

Charming

No, but I don’t think there is any identifying information on here.

An EA we know says that buyers from London don't view in person but offer X amount to purchase because they're building a property portfolio of rentals. We're in Wales anything small or large they're just looking for an 8% return on which is a lot more than they'll get in bank interest.

Statement of the bleeding obvious there.

How is it identifying?

Then you need to accept 'the bleeding obvious ' as reality and stop encouraging your son to be playing silly games to try stop the landlord from selling the house. All that will achieve is the landlord to give notice sooner and possibly refuse to give them a reference later.

They would have to more than double the current rent to make 8% on the flat

Yes it's true and you see it on here - people saying they wouldn't buy a house because of the colour of the walls - easy things to fix.

When we were looking for our current house, we looked at a couple of properties which were tenanted and the tenants left the houses untidy, toys everywhere, curtains drawn to make it look dark etc. Neither house was in a perfect location anyway so we probably wouldn't have bought in any event, but the look of the houses didn't help and the fact that you knew people would be reluctant to move on didn't help.

It’s unlikely to sell with a sitting tennant unless to another landlord, as such, the landlord will serve notice and evict, if I was them I’d look for another place sharpish,

and deny viewings or making it unappealing is one way to hasten that, irrelevant though, their very presence will put most buyers off unless it’s another landlord,

many landlords are selling up now,it’s the renters right act, which is meaning rentals are now coming at a premium as they are in short supply in many locations

I think instead of going along with this daft idea, and giving childish advice like remove ghe cushions, tell them to expect notice and look for another rental asap

lastly im beyond bemused you actually think you can get the price dropped enough they can buy it, they will simply be evicted and the landlord will sell then

You lost any moral high ground really in your opening post and beyond when you made it crystal clear that they want to delay the sale with the intention of getting the price down as low as possible so they might be able to buy it themselves. Then there were additional comments about delaying it so they could stay as long as possible. You also made it pretty clear they can't really afford to offer to buy, meaning it would really have to be a massive reduction to make that possible. Yet you've got defensive and annoyed when people have pointed out to you that actually you have no idea why this landlord needs to sell, but equally that doesn't seem to bother you. You also seem to discount the fact that hundreds of people have to face up to this situation all the time, putting it off or trying to be deliberately devious isn't actually the way to teach your adult child decent life skills and frankly it isn't just about cushions, its your whole approach that seems to be if the landlord gets screwed over who cares? No wonder landlords don't want to be landlords anymore. Private renting had never been ideal, I've had to move myself because of the insecurity of it, but trying to find ways of making the property unattractive or delay a probably inevitable sale for either a cheaper buy (which frankly from what you've said would literally have to be when the landlord was desperate going by what you've indicated about your son and his girlfriends financial position) or to delay it so they can stay longer....not great.

That’s not an accurate reflection of what is happening though.

Yes it does, but you’re missing the point the landlord can simply serve notice,

It’s what you have written, if it’s not accurate you should not have written it as you have,

Obviously I don't know the location of the flat but what I would tell you is that selling a flat has never been harder than it is at the moment. With all the new rules for landlords the market has become swamped

Then help them start looking instead of coming up with the questionable ideas you have so far.

YOUR post is not an accurate reflection of what is happening

I’m not missing that point at all. That would delay viewings by at least four months

You wrote saying your son wished to make the flat less sellable, you’d advised removed sold furnishings, bizzarely, and if they can get it to drop enough in price they may purchase it,

how on earth is that an inaccurate reflection of what you’ve said,

That’s good news

So?

Hopefully in the end your son and his partner won't listen to any of your amazing advice, they'll just pull up their grown up pants and get on with looking for somewhere else, before they damage relations with their landlord even further and risk their reference, and time to look for somewhere new.