Chatting with my friend yesterday and she's got a bit of a conundrum.
She lives in a semi and earlier this year inherited a decent sum of money.
She has been living next door to a business for the last 2 years. It's her attached semi and was previously a residential house until the owner allowed a business to open there. It is completely used as a business with no residential any more (imagine a hairdressers with both floors used as the salon but it's really a business completely unaffected by coronavirus ). No one lives there. It is about to go to auction and my friend could afford to buy it. The legal pack includes information about the tenancy agreement which looks to us like a cheap and cheerful internet contract. It explicitly states the property should be residential. However the landlord owner definitely knows the whole house has been turned into a business so whilst the agreement doesn't match the use of the building the landlord owner knows that. The legal pack states the new owner will be expected to honour the 2 years left on the tenancy agreement.
My friend has had nothing but bother from the business but loves the area and her current house so ideally would buy the attached semi (and have her adult son with additional needs live there).
Her conundrum is: if the business owner is running the business contrary to the residential tenancy agreement could she buy the house and serve notice on the business for not adhering to the residential part of the tenancy agreement?