Advice appreciated buying house, allowing current owner to occupy for some time

[househelppl]

Sorry about the clumpy worded title, wasn’t sure how to sum it up in a couple of words.
We’re buying a house and the current owner has accepted our offer on the condition that we allow her enough time to find a rental before we move in. She has asked for this in writing, in an email.
We’re not in a particular rush to move in and think it’s fair enough to give her time to find a rental property and appreciate it could take a number of weeks to find somewhere.
However I’m worried about putting this in writing. What if they can’t find a rental for months and months? Should we maybe determine a timescale to cover ourselves? Is there certain wording we should use to make sure it’s an appropriate timescale and not some indeterminate time somewhere in the future?
I need to let them know ASAP as they’ll only accept our offer once they have this email from us so any advice would be very gratefully received.

Are you buying cash or with a mortgage? If mortgaged then the lender will want vacant possession upon completion.

They'll have all the time they need during the legal stuff - on average it takes 10-12 weeks to buy a house, so they have ages. You agree a completion date between yourselves, so there's really no need for this letter (in my opinion).

Are you first time buyers? Don't you have your own timetable of when to move to worry about too?

I'd send something like:

We would like to exchange by X date (8-10 weeks from now) and complete by X date (whatever seems reasonable to you) and make out offer on the basis that these timings are acceptable to you.

I'd give them a very clear deadline that they have to be out by. Although surely if you're only at the stage of your offer being accepted she has plenty time between now and the moving in date to find a rented place

You don't mean they want to stay AFTER completion, do you? Because that isn't possible in any circumstances.

Get a lawyer to draw up a contract. Money well spent as if you make a mistake it will be expensive!

It should be relatively simple to exchange contracts soon and agree a completion date for when the existing owner has found a rental.

To add to the clamour - do NOT agree to her staying past completion, that way all sorts of legal madness lies.

But do agree an exchange and completion schedule that will allow her time to find the rental. That's not particularly unusual.

What Squirrels said. They can't be in the house after completion.

You agree a timescale for completion and she has to have found a place and moved out by that date. It is quite simple really.

They can stay beyond completion. A close relative of mine did this. They were buying a new house so they weren't sure exactly when it would be ready. They completed on the old house and rented from the new owners until the new house was ready. It was fine. All the contracts and terms were drawn up before completion. Mortgage Co was OK as it was a short term thing.
Op- one alternative in your situation would be to exchange and set a longer than normal gap to completion. Then your seller doesn't have to commit to a rental before she knows for sure her sale will go through but you get certainty of an end date.

Don't let them stay beyond completion. Never.

Sorry "in any circumstances" was obviously shorthand for "don't get embroiled in contemplating letting her stay after completion because it would be a really big pain in the arse for you, require much hoop-jumping and is not really necessary in the majority of circumstances - don't be too nice, you are spending the biggest amount of money you probably ever will, so you want to enjoy it from Day 1 and it's OK to insist on that".

It is possible, as zebra says - but it is in no way desirable from your point of view. And I'd worry that a vendor asking this would be a pain in other ways too as being generally unrealistic.

Thank you for the replies.
No I don’t think they want to stay after completion but maybe push the completion date further and further back if they haven’t found a rental yet.
We’re first time buyers do not 100% clued up.I suspect we need to speak to a solicitor.
We met the owner and she seems lovely and I think she’s genuinely worried about having to leave before she’s found a property so I want to reassure her but at the same time cover our backs.

I honestly would not do this at all. I think you would open yourselves up to all sorts of issues, particularly related to when you can get them out of the property and where you yourselves are going to live while that is going on. As far as I would be concerned, they leave on the day of completion. End of story.

It does take several weeks for a house purchase to fully go through. That should be plenty of time for your vendor to find suitable accommodation.

You presumably have a solicitor ready to handle the conveyancing for you. Take their advice and let them handle it.

I am not a legal person, but I would definitely NOT be OK with what these people are proposing. You have to draw the line somewhere, and completion day is the best and most obvious point.

OK, when you get to the point of exchange of contracts a completion date will be set. Generally about a week or so after exchange.

If they exchange contracts on cue then after that they will no longer be able to amend the completion date without severe penalties.

Appoint a solicitor. It really is advisable to have one for this. It has to be correct.

The normal process should allow plenty of time for her to find somewhere. But you can also ‘occupy under license’ as a seller - you pay rent and still have to be out by a fixed date. We did that and it was fine.
You just need your solicitor to draw up an agreement.

If there is no chain a buyer also can ask to push back completion as long as the sellers agree - it just depends. But it always comes with a cost - there are no freebies in house buying - and if you want an out-of-the ordinary arrangement you have to often bear the cost of two properties for a short period of time.

Really she should begin looking for a rental property now and aim to move into that slightly before completion, but I am guessing that she doesn’t like the costs of that.

Also it is possible that your mortgage offer will only remain valid for 3 months and although you can apply for an extension if the rates change etc you may have to start the mortgage process again.

We had something similar. We were buying from a couple who had divided the garden and were building a new house so they were to be our neighbours. They offered to find a rental but we were not in a hurry and said they could stay till their house was ready. Our solicitor was concerned and insisted on a legal agreement and that they paid rent - peppercorn rent it was called at £1 - which gave us rights as landlords.

It was fine but you do need legal protection.

When you exchange you have to have agreed a vacant completion date - you can't exchange without it. The norm is 2-4 weeks later but can be anything up to a year (obviously the risk with a long time between exchange and completion is if the market suddenly drops you're stuck with the agreed price).

Maybe agree a two month period? That should give her plenty of time and your mortgage offer should still be valid.

We're selling our house and our new house isn't ready yet so are moving into rented.

We've insisted on a month in between exchange and completion so we have time to find somewhere to live. We've always been clear with the buyers on this and as they kept being unable to exchange we kept slipping the completion date.

I don't think it's that rare to have a bigger gap between exchange and completion - it's just all about communication, which I think you need to do in writing and via solicitors.

Good luck!

It takes a while anyway and it isn't your problem to house her.

As others have suggested, I’d offer to have a larger gap between exchange and completion maybe