Buying property that has council tenants - nightmare?

[CurlyFriend]

I'm hoping someone can help here as I'm being lied to by someone and it's very frusttrating!

Brief background, lovely house on with another branch of the agent we have sold with, plus recently also gone on with a second agent. I spoke to our agent to get a viewing they called the branch dealing with it who said that reason it hasn't sold is because it has council tenants in situ, who will need to be evicted so they will get allocated another property.

So we accepted that and discounted the property as our buyers won't wait the 6 or 7 months that will take.

We then viewed another property with the second agent, who suggested the first house to us. When we said we couldn't wait for the tenants to be evicted, he told us it wasn't true and they weren't council tenants, and that the first agent was being served notice and that's why they said that.

Anyway, we ended up viewing and loving it. Second agent sent us an email from the vendor stating there should be no problem with the tenants leaving. We offered and it was accepted, and I then spoke to our agent.

They are adamant that we have been lied to by the second agent and that they will need to be evicted, and it will result in us spending time and money and either having to pull out or lose our buyers as they won't wait.

My head hurts. Is there any way we can find out independent of the bloody estate agents whether there are council tenants in place? And if they are, will that definitely result in an eviction rather than them leaving at the end if the notice period?

Love the house but really don't want to proceed any further if it's going to be a nightmare.

Get a solicitor. That's what you pay them for.

They won't be council tenants as it's not a council house. They may be in receipt of housing benefit if it's rented.

I think you need to know how long they have left to run on their contract, have they already been given notice, when does the notice run out etc

If they are on housing benefit or hoping to get a council house they will be advised to stay until evicted by bailiffs as leaving before is likely to mean that they voluntarily made themselves homeless in the eyes of the council and therefore not eligible to declare homelessness.

Having any tenant in-situ is a nightmare almost all buyers avoid (unless buying as an investment) and most will insist the property is empty before exchange or completion. A solicitor will be able to detail the real costs, which you can then add to 2x moving and renting a temp place / storing your stuff btw 6-8 months to your solicitor's estimate (as most places will rent 6 month break clause with 2 month notice unless you want to pay even more for a short term let) and reduce your offer to that.

They can be council tenants renting privately and yes the advise is you have to get evicted (6-8 month process) or you will have made yourself intentionally homeless. Hence why many private landlords don't like to take on tenants who receive housing benefits.

and if they have a lease that has a fixed term they can't be evicted anyway, you become their new landlord.

Sorry I wasn't clear. We are not buying with them in situ, the vendor was apparently waiting for an offer to serve notice.

I have been told notice will be served on Friday (day rent is due) and it will be 8 weeks.

I've used the wrong terms so sorry about that as well (not really sure how it all works). I assume I'm being told by our agent that they get housing benefit and will need to be evicted so it's not voluntary. The other agent is telling us this is not true.

I'm not sure how my solicitor will be able to help? I just want to know now whether they are going to leave, and why our agent seems convinced they won't go! I've told the second agent (who we offered with) that we will pull out if it looks like they will not leave voluntarily, so I can't understand what they would gain by accepting our offer for it to fall through (costing us time and money in the meantime)

We are trying to buy a family home, definitely not to become landlords!

How do I unravel is as quickly as possible as if we are going to retract our offer I want to do it ASAP.

So the house isn't being sold with vacant possession as is normal. This will be very tricky indeed I should imagine. They might not even be able to be evicted.

So is it not normal to sell a house with tenants still there on the proviso they leave before exchange? I've viewed tons of tenanted properties?

Sorry I meant with vacant possession written into the contract! Surely you can't exchange contracts before the tenants have well and truly left. But it could take a while. Hope you get sorted out.

God I have no idea, I assume it would be, but if they refuse to leave we would just have to wait until they are gone to exchange (exactly the situation I don't want to be in).

I'll talk to my solicitor tomorrow. I have a feeling this could be more hassle than it's worth

it is indeed 8 weeks notice for them, the notice needs to be correctly served.

they may just leave - they may find another place. But if they don't, you can't buy.

The ones in the house we are moving to are refusing to move,which makes us homeless. Its not a great situation.

K