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?

Can you put it to auction but use the power of the media to spread the word? Even social media.

You might get someone entirely unexpected who wants to buy it

The worst thing is they don’t even need to read OPs replies, it was already addressed in the opening post. Just shows how many people pile in desperate to give their opinion without even bothering to have the decency to read what OP has said first

If the OP can't afford the repairs and the house is deemed too hazardous to live in she could lose it, the council would have to house her though.

OP maybe start a thread on the legal matters section or on the legal advice UK reddit sub and explain the exact details of how the inheritance was handled and who handed it and what you were told and see if everything was above board.

Exactly. Someone over 70 with a learning disability. That's why they have been protected for life.

I didn’t see the OP answering this directly. Obviously the rent is minuscule. But owning it means that he can do what he likes with it. He can pass it on his family etc. So I was interested to see if he’d said anything specifically about why. To see if there was anything that would persuade him.

But thanks for so kindly replying.

Would you want to land this problem on your church, even if they accepted?
I am starting to wonder if simply omitting to do any more repairs would get the tenant interested in finding a compromise. You must do the life threatening things like maintaining the gas boiler, but you could stop fixing the roof, for example. When they complain, you could say you can only afford to repair it if they work with you on claiming benefits so the rent can go up. Just a thought.

There are companies that buy houses like this, with a view to making a profit when the tenant dies. I found this one from googling, the google reviews are positive.

I would contact as many of these companies as you can find until one buys it. I think selling to a specialist buyer to avoid ongoing costs and responsibility is the best thing.

They are able to buy these properties in cash and absorb ongoing costs, knowing they can resell for a profit once the tenant dies. The house will be owned by a company not a person. Very different from your stressful situation owning it personally and not having the funds to wait out the tenants lifetime.

DO NOT contact Environmental Health as advised by somebody up thread. They can demand you do work in a certain timescale, and take enforcement action if you don't.

propertysaviour.co.uk/can-you-sell-a-property-with-a-regulated-lifetime-tenancy/

Actually, having looked at all the OPs posts, I can’t see anywhere where she clearly states why the tenant doesn’t want it. It’s an assumption (and a good one) that he wouldn’t because of the low rent and security.

I asked ‘Why?’ he doesn’t want it to see if there was leverage. It might well be money oriented but there might be other reasons that might help to know. Was there anything that would tempt him? Renting can be infuriating when you want to make changes and repairs are slow etc.

Chatgpt can be a helpful starting point but check the info received. I tried "Is there help for landlords with lifetime tenants who pay a peppercorn rent?", followed by "Why don't the government assist with costs, they put the policy in place".

In my eyes you should have access to a fair rent e.g. housing benefit directly to you, but that's probably unrealistic so try looking into some of the chatgpt suggestions and speak to your MP about it.

Can you start a limited company and sell it to that company for £1?

Do you usually comment before reading the OP? 🤦‍♀️

Who initiated the peppercorn rent/lifetime tenancy and why? I'm assuming because the tenant might have special needs as you said, but do you know any other history of ownership and relation to the tenant?

I'm no expert but from reading this thread, it sounds like one of those "we buy any property" companies could be your best bet. What a nightmare situation, though.

Look at this from the, now eldery tenants point of view.

They have security of a home for life, they can afford and in an area they are happy and feel safe in. They don't have to worry about money or eviction and don't have the responsibility of maintenance. To them, op and her family is a stranger.

We do not know why they were given a home for life on peppercorn rent, and the reasons that came about...it seems only the dead uncle and tenant know that but, whilst I massively feel for op and would love for them be be able to do something about the situation, it feels crazy they can be left such a burden in a will, I think wishing harm on an elderly tenant, who is just wanting to live their life in the terms agreed is harsh.

Too late now but you could have done at the start. Your best option now is proper legal advice. Try the legal section on here or the property section on the money saving expert forum, there’s lots of knowledgeable people there.

if you gave it to the tenant for free, and they accepted it, it would immediately be worth its normal price, as they would no longer be a sitting tenant. Is there any chance their wider family would be interested in taking it on under these circumstances as an investment/ inheritance?
Unfortunately the tenant has a great deal herself. It’s a totallly unjust situation. My parents bought a house like this many years ago. The set rent for each of the two flats it was divided into was £12 per month. Fortunately the tenants died/ moved out soon after they bought it.
The government are talking about councils being given powers to buy properties that are in substandard condition from landlords, but I don’t think it’s gone through.

I would post this on Reddit in the legal matters uk subreddit

This sounds worth getting specialist advice.

The op has in effect been turned into an unfunded provider of social housing, so getting the property liabilities out of her name and into a limited liability company is a fair reflection of the situation.

Would another option be to approach specialist social housing providers for older people or housing charities to see if they would take the liability on?

No too late

I would definitely move to the legal board and also ask if you have any recourse against whoever handled your uncle’s estate for not making it clear you could refuse the bequest &/or not clarifying what you were inheriting. I have no idea if you would and am sure it will depend on the exact circumstances even if some path to compensation from the legal professionals involved exists. Must be worth exploring though along with the idea of setting up a company to own the house to limit your personal liability for repairs.

The best advice is to seek legal opinion, via your home insurance provider, assuming you have legal cover. Sounds a very difficult situation to have found yourself in, I hope you can find a resolution. Good Luck.

@Cantgiveitawayi have no idea if you can still do this with the recent rent reforms however somebody I know in our village was the tenant in this situation.

They have the same tenancy set up as you've described and have lived in the house for decades. The property was absorbed/sold to a company with a portfolio of rentals for whatever reason. After it was absorbed, the new "owner" came to do a property inspection and found that the house had a number of issues and needed some serious work and updates. The tenant was given the option to allow the work to take place however this would mean that the rent would go up to closer to market rate. Alternatively, the tenant could sign something or write a letter (can't remember which) stating that he would not allow access for any works or allow them to take place. The result of that was that he continued to pay peppercorn rent

I think something similar to this may be worth exploring for viability for you.

You need to give them a contract they dont want and wont sign and therefor with no contract they are not a tennent and you can get them out, back in the day you went in changed the locks and chucked their stuff out...there must be websites you can advertise land for sale to builders

Have you spoken to the tenant to let them know upkeep is putting you into financial difficulties? Maybe there's room for them to pay for maintenance, afterall they are living there for the duration of their lifetime for very little, so it benefits them too.

What would be the wider impact of this? Become bankrupt? Smash your personal credit rating? Unable to borrow a mortgage, credit cards, loans for the benefit of your own family and moving forward?

Is a 70yr lady going to report them to the council as unfit Landlords? Would she know where to start? I guess that's a risk.