Lease runs out end of august, but landlord is selling house, where do we stand?

[OracleInaCoracle]

especially if he gets an offer sooner rather than later? we have 14m left on lease, but what if he gets an offer and it goes through sooner?

What does your contract say? Usually after the first 6 months either side can give notice of 1 month, sometimes 2 months.

no, we renewed the 6m lease under duress so we cant move out until 31st august. but obviously if he sells the house our lease is with him not the house.

?

Is it going to be a problem to move? Is rental property in short supply where you live?

My gut feeling is that it's unlikely to be sold by the end of August anyway unless he's put it on a quite a low price, the market is moving fairly slowly at the moment.

Whenever it does sell, it takes time for everything to be finalised so your landlord ought to be able to give a decent amount of notice.

If he does break the contract before 6 months or without giving enough notice then you have a few choices. You could insist that you stay until your contract is up or you are evicted, which would mean he would have to go through the courts to have you removed and you would have some extra time to find another property. This could cause you some future trouble though if you need references for your next rental. If you don't have proper notice and that gives you a financial cost (eg if you have to stay in a b&b for a few nights) then you could possibly claim against the landlord in the small claims court, but that might be a bit of a pain in the neck.

On the whole I would say you have a fair amount of negotiating power on your side because of the time and effort needed to evict a tenant. I think the landlord would rather negotiate to let you stay an extra few weeks than have to take you to court, he may even offer to pay moving costs for you if he wants to stick to a particular timescale.

It's also possible that the property will be bought by another landlord who will be happy to keep you as tenants.

I have just bought a house with tenants in and the lease runs out 31 july and we also plan to complete that day.The house was v cheap as he needed to sell it rent not covering the mortgage If i was you i would look elsewhere as it could get stressful if you are rushed.But agree unless it is very well priced you will have plenty of time

its VERY well priced. in a fab area a huge two bed bungalow (so appeals to downsizers) but with loads of potential to extend. with 2 of the best schools in shropshire on the doorstep. we were oing to move out in september anyway, im just worried about it selling beforehand

If you have signed a 6 month lease terminating on 31st August, the earliest he can give you notice is 30th June. In the circumstances, it is unlikely that he will sell by then even if he gets an offer now. So, if I were you, I'd start looking for another property with a view to moving at the end of August.

Tbh, you may have signed under duress, but he's done you a favour. If your previous agreement had simply rolled over, he could give you notice now.

i suppose, i just hate having this hanging over us. i was hoping to redecorate etc but dont se the point now. and i hate showing prospective buyers around our home.

If you have a lease til 31st August you do not have to move out until 31st August! It doesn't matter when the property is sold. He will have to give you two months notice so that will be in June. When this exact thing happened to us, we spoke to our agent and they told us that we had no legal obligation to allow people to view the house until 2 months before the end of the lease. If there is an agent involved, it would be worth talking to them to check or if not, contacting the cab.

Why would you show prospective buyers around? That's the agents job. Make sure they give you adequate notice before they bring viewers and either arrange it for a time when you're not there or when it's not a manic time (mealtimes/bath/bedtime).

I would never consider redecorating a property I was renting, that's just pointless IMO. Although I've never rented anywhere long-term and I hate decorating anyway.

I didn't know Ags point about not being legally obliged to allow people to view until near the end of the contract. That's very interesting, and might be worth pointing out to your landlord.

we are renting privately, so no agent, however i would rather show prospective viewers around myself than have an estate agent do it.