Simply don't know what to do.

[Cantgiveitaway]

4 years ago we inherited a house. It has been on the market for the entirety of that time. It is on sale for approx 25% of market value. Reasons below:

The property is non-standard construction and therefore unmortgagable (we have explored this extensively).

It has a sitting lifetime tenancy on a peppercorn rent. Tenant is in their 70s and in good health.

We cannot sell it due to the above.

For those unaware, lifetime tenants cannot be evicted and the rent is very tightly controlled. We have increased it to the maximum allowed every year for the 4 years we've owned it. It still doesn't constitute £1000 a year.

We do not have any more money to put in to the property. We've done the legal required stuff. We've explored legal avenues for eviction ABD offered to give (gift) the property to the sitting tenant.

We basically need someone to come along with enough money to keep the property legally for 20+ years before they can do anything with it.

The most recent gas and electricity safety checks and the EPC have shown significant work needed in the next 12 months to keep it legal. We can't do it. Our only option is to sell our home that we, move in to a much smaller property in a different area (moving children's schools and away from family) and renting ourselves.

We have 0 savings because of the house and cannot afford basic things for our own home.

I just don't know what to do.

WWYD? We literally cannot give it away - we offered it to the LA and to a social landlord and a landlord with an extensive portfolio in the area and all said no.

In 20years, when the tenant dies or moves in to care the land might be worth something (and therefore sellable) but we can't wait that long. We had absolutely no idea the property existed until we inherited it and I've no idea why we did.

Any out of the box thinking here from the hive mind?

I get why the house is undesirable.

I just think if you price it low enough at auction, it will hopefully get some interest and any money for it is better than none.

1,Can you gift it to a charity?
2,Raffle it off?
3, Can you get a loan against it, just pay the interest till it's time to sell?

Sorry just throwing ideas out there..

Can you rent another room out in the house? If a 2 or 3 bedroom house, get a tenant in one of the other rooms perhaps?

Will the tenant not even discuss the possibility of moving? If they don’t have much money then benefits would cover a lot of their rent. Is it someone you can talk to? I cannot imagine anyone who could be so awful as to essentially bankrupt you.

It was a bad decision to accept the inheritance. You’re stuck now. Has no one been able to give you any advice on how to get out of this?

Why? Like OP they'd have to spend more on the upkeep of the property than the rent will bring in. So why would anyone spend £30k on something that could continue at a loss, costing them money, for another twenty years?

I'm so sorry, OP. This must be awful. This is the first time I've heard of this happening, yet it's so obvious now, that it can happen.

Another idea - have you asked the tenant if she would be interested in buying it at a very low price?

Just to make sure I've got this right. You can sell it with but with the tenant still there? So no one else would be able to move in even if they owned it? Did the person you inherited it from also live there?
Is it possible to rent part of the house out/have a shared house arrangement?

She's already addressed this at least twice. The tenant doesn't want it.

It's on for £25k. Small 1 bed flats got for about £250k leasehold.

Issue is that rent is £660 a year, up from £48 a year when we inherited it. A piece of land the size of this one without PP is worth about £60k, because there's a building already on it, it should be worth a bit more, as PP would be fairly easy to get but its unlikely to be much more as the type of property you could put on the land is limited.

Your legal avenues are locked here. But what is your relationship like with the tenant? Who are they to you/who were they to the deceased?

Would it be cheaper to get them to move and pay their rent until benefits can take over?

No, the tenant is legally allowed to remain in the property, until either they die or move in to residential care. They cannot be evicted under any circumstances. The rent can only go up by a certain amount each year, I think it's a % plus inflation or something but I'm not 100% - we pay a specialist solicitor to do the calculation each year and draw up the contract.

Then an auction is the only way.

If it's on at 25k currently with no takers, I would put it up for auction at 15k.

It's a total stranger.

The deceased was a great half uncle of DHs who he had never met. We don't know the link between uncle and tenant.

They will not move out. We have offered financial incentives of various kinds. They are perfectly pleasant, a little 'simple' / possibly SEN but know their rights and know that they have security of a home for life.

I think I read it here on MN that you could refuse an inheritance. I didn't realise you could either.

Donate it to your church and take the tax write-off in Charitable Donations.

When we put it up for auction we put it as no reserve - the auction house had a minimum of £8k though. I'll see if another auction house would be different.

1. Will look at this.
2. No idea the legalities of this but might be worth a look.
3. No. We've tried.

I'll look in to it. The church could refuse it though couldn't they?

An inheritance from such a distant relative you’d never met, so no emotional link to the property… why did you accept it?

I think I’d turn up at my MPs surgery and start crying and demanding help due to some very unfair and restrictive laws.

Even with the new stricter tenants right laws, you can evict if you are selling up. It’s ridiculous that you’re trapped like this.

They could, I suppose, but I doubt they would. The church will be standing long after your tenant pops his clogs.

i would determine a few figures.
How much does this cost you a year?
How much is it realistically worth without a sitting tenant?
How much would it take to pay the sitting tenant to move?

If you have enough liquid money to incentivize the tenant to leave, I suggest you use it. I suspect you don’t though. Instead, I would suggest you meet with a solicitor and work up a contract that guarantees them a very generous payment upon sale of the property. That payment might be the entire sale price, but it would get this off your books.

Wow. Worth trying a different auction though as you never know, even if they all have the minimum 8k thing.

Or could you re mortgage your current property to release some funds to stay on top of legal stuff with the inherited house. Play the long game and think the tenant is already in her 70s - won't necessarily be there for the 20 years you are fearing? When she dies/goes into care the house will suddenly become an asset worth a lot more.

Honestly had no idea you could refuse an inheritance. It wasn't something discussed with us at time. More a "great uncle stand left you this, here you go". No conversations, no formal accepted. As though we'd been handed a vase.

We owned a pretty shit property and when we got divorced no one would buy it and was costing a fortune to maintain (shop and flat with tenant above). We put it to auction THREE times and the final time it sold for just below the asking price. Keep trying. I had pretty much given up.

The church won't want it! It's a liability that will only be worth something after the fit 70-something tenant moves out or dies, and even then it won't be worth much. What a nightmare. If only OP had known that refusing an inheritance is possible and sometimes desirable.

Would the tennant accept the house as a gift?

If it's actively costing you, it's worth trying anything...