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.

Just mutter about the damp and the noise and the rat infestation, just loud enough to be heard...

But really not much you can do, if they want to sell they will, the buyer may well be a big landlord increasing his portfolio who is just looking at the bricks and mortar. Lots of small landlords are giving up it's not worth the hassle as this thread tends to support.

It's a mean thing to do.the owner is allowed to sell their property.

This can’t be serious

Have they done any research to see what kind of joint mortgage they could get?

The irony of your post calling others spiteful and vindictive.

I suggest you re read your OP.

Could you give or lend your son the money for a deposit ?

This is pretty disgusting of the original poster. It’s not a valid argument to say well we could do worse…..

Any vandalism of the flat is criminal damage. The house belongs to the landlord. If they ever need a reference from the previous landlord they will be very damaged if they haven damaged it etc

They can say no to viewings if they are allowed to via their rental agreement - but honestly do not encourage your son to do this.

I have inherited a house with a tenant, it is going to be have to be sold for people to get their inheritance. I’m applying for the tenant to be evicted if they trash it - I will follow them to the ends of the earth within any legal remit to get my value back for criminal damage. And posts like yours explain why I don’t want to own a house and rent it. If you borrow and lease a car - you don’t take it for a massive joy rent and crash it just because the owner says you have three months left and then I need to sell it and you need to hand it back. Understand this - posts like yours explain why people like me are selling any property (which I might add the tenant can’t afford it’s not affordable housing), rather than carry on renting. I have spent £5000 on the house since inheriting it and I’m not prepared to bring it up to an EPC C as the government directed from an E by 2030. I can afford to have it sit empty and hold out for a good price. So that’s another rental property off the housing market.

Don’t be an arse. Fine don’t have viewers but leave on time and do the right thing.

I think the agent is already involved as they never deal with the LL directly.

It would at least give them longer before they have to uproot their lives from their cosy little home. Is that so difficult to comprehend?
If they love the place so much they are prepared to take spiteful actions to stay there longer, don't you think it is likely to be as popular for buyers?

Unless they overprice it, it sounds that it will be a popular house to buyers and there isn't much your son can do to deter any buyers.

That's life that renters don't get their perfect home for ever. That's the reason why they should concentrate on saving to also be in a position to buy, rather than focusing on making things difficult for landlords.

If landlords are selling, it's because the government has made it not worth being landlords, so blame the government, not landlords.

Good grief, I was pointing out what other tenants do and actually said that my son wouldn’t do any of those things. So what is disgusting about what I was suggesting?

Absolutely serious - and it appears most would agree.

You are a poor role model, suggesting that your son remove things (cushions, whatever) to try and put off buyers so that he can leap in and buy it cheap. Yeah, shit role model.

I'm embarrassed for you actually.

Anyone with half a brain won’t buy a property with a Tennant
mortgage companies won’t release the money till the apartment is empty and vacant

so any person buying is going on the good will of your son moving out on time and not being evicted which can’ take a year and more

Right, do that, then think about the only alternative left for the landlord if they refuse viewings.

Selling your excess properties isn't taking them off the housing market, it's putting them on the market. It's great news that people like you are selling your unneeded properties so that people who need a home can buy one.

Leave floaters in the toilet. At least they'll still have to live (and breathe) their own obnoxiousness.

Be careful OP, the tenants in one of my flats did this, I waited until two months before their lease was due to end and I didn’t renew it. The flat then sold when it had been empty for a month.

Where have I blamed LLs????
I actually feel that the law has gone too far to the protection of tenants rather than LLs, which is forcing LLs out and making the situation worse for tenants in the long run.

Sigh. In which case, why the post in the first place? If you’re right, no one will want to buy a flat which, during viewings, is inhabited by tenants. No need for living glumly without cushions or leaving unflushed loos with the lid up.

Is that were you place the bar for your adult children?

Amazing parenting in action 👌Be proud!

The intent behind it is.

Yeah, good one.

If the landlord has put the house on the market without having given your son notice, it sounds as if they're planning to sell with sitting tenants. If the viewers are landlords looking for a buy to rent, they are going to be looking for somewhere with good, responsible tenants. From their point of view, the tidier and better kept the flat is, the better.

Given that they aren't in a position to buy the flat themselves, selling the flat to a new, hopefully decent, landlord is the best outcome for them.

Having sold my rental recently the best way of not selling is for your tenant to have the house filled with huge amounts of clutter, dry all their clothes inside with the windows shut so black mould grows in the walls which appears to the potential buyers to be damp and lastly fill the garden with an assortment of broken machinery and traffic cones. That should give them at least another 3 months.

Why don't they offer to buy it from LL and save them the EA fees?