Selling house with tenants in or not?

[ThisIsBULLSHIT]

Massive dilemma here. We are renting out our old house (having bought a bigger one and not being able to sell the old one in time to be able to buy the bigger one) and we are approaching then end of our mortgage deal so are looking to sell it.

We really need to sell it as it costs us money to rent it out and we need to release some of the equity so we can pay off our bigger mortgage.

DH and I are disagreeing about when to sell. Our mortgage deal is up in November so ideally we need to have it sold on the 1st of December. I think we need to get it on the market ASAP and start the ball rolling. He wants to wait till we give the tenants notice and wait for them to leave, clean it all up, redecorate and then sell it.

The problem with this is that we have NO savings and therefore any months without a tenant will cost us over £1000. (We don't earn enough to pay this without tenants each month) This would all need to go on a credit card until we sell.
I am very concerned that if we wait it will cost us £££££ and this will eat heavily into our equity (which could be from £30k to £60k depending on how much we sell it for) and we need the equity to pay off a chunk our colossal mortgage.....

Has anyone sold a house with tenants in? Should we risk showing people round with them in it? (They are pretty ok people but with a tendency to be awkward). We are going to try and do it as fairly as possible and be considerate towards our tenants.

Any advice from anyone with any experience would be much appreciated.

Very few buyers will take on a property with sitting tenants, but you can put it on the market before the tenants have moved out. They are two different things.

Ta mintyy
What do you mean by sitting tenants? We would give them notice to leave if we sell.

The tenants do have a "right to quiet enjoyment of the property" so would be completely within their rights to heavily restrict viewing times (I would if my landlord tried to sell out from under me), which can make it harder to sell.

Also, the buyers have no way of knowing if the tenants are going to be difficult and refuse to leave, which is why many won't even look at a tenanted property (we're house hunting and would avoid this situation).

Good points, ones I hadn't thought about before, thanks.

Sitting tenants means the tenants will stay in the property when the new owner buys it (so in effect he/she will become their new landlord).

It wasn't clear from your op what you intended.

I see, no they wouldn't be staying. They know we want to sell now so they only signed up for a year.

Oh bloody hell lepaskilf

no such thing as sitting tenants unless they have been there a VERY Long time. But as pointed out, there is no guarantee that they will leave at the end of the tenancy. Most people do, but if they don't you have an expensive process to go through to get possession.

the easiest and pleasantest way is to talk to your tenants, explain the situation and make a deal. Give them some incentive to help you (discount on rent perhaps), restrict viewings to certain times (open house system) OR if they want to stay, market it to other landlords.

they do not have to allow any viewings at all.

also - how is the market in your area? Putting it on the market in November is tricky, many people will be thinking 'we'll look after Christmas'. So unless you live somewhere red-hot it may be a non-choice, in that as it won't go in December you might as well wait until the tenants leave, blitz it and then sell it empty.

Thanks specialist yes, we are trying to be amicable and open! DH deals with it all and he is v patient and polite.

The thought of them refusing to go makes my blood run cold though..... We have had complaints from the neighbours about them being a bit antisocial so he has had to speak to them a couple of times.

Market is very good at the moment but we have previously put the house on the market and have had no interest at all. It has some really quirky good points but also some annoying points too.

That's why I am anxious to get it on now and try and sell it with them still living there.

And wow I didn't realise they didn't have to let us have people view it...
Oh god, this is going to be mega stressful isn't it!!!

It happens more often than you think - I was due to move into a house where the previous tenant refused to leave. Took the landlord months and months and court hearings to get them out.

Oh shit. I am going to get DH round there ASAP!

No need to panic, BULLSHIT. Perhaps avail yourself of the terms of the tenancy agreement?

YY shedding that's what DH thinks. It does scrub up really well. Thanks.

I have read it closely before mintyy when we were having issues but you are right! I will have a proper butchers at it and might have a glass of as well.....

don't panic - as I said, most tenants are decent people and will leave at the end of the tenancy. The more warning you give them of your plans, the better in the interests of communication.

Your notice to them is 2 months minimum (they may of course have a longer tenancy) but perhaps you could give more? Also, I know it costs you when the place is empty but you could also offer to let them leave early if it suits them.

but it is their home and they do not have to allow any access except in an emergency.

Ok thanks for that info specialist.
Cheers!

'special subject'. specialist in nothing.... :-)

Appreciated nonetheless!

You're going to have to get them to leave before you can do anything. You can ask but they can say No.

OK, when is their year up? Let's assume you give notice now. That will mean it will be empty by October. Let's talk sense - and Im not sure where you are - but the market has turned, the new mortgage restrictions are kicking in. Unless you get a cash buyer then you are not likely to shift the place till early 2015 at the best.

You might to really slash the price to make sure you can get this place shifted, or you'll risk having empty for a very long time.

Thats what I'm afraid of, see if we can get it sold with them in it, we could have it on the market tomorrow (pretty much) as their year is up end of sept.
The market is fairly buoyant here but that worries me about the market turning, I am not hugely knowledgable about it.
Our town is v popular and houses have been snapped up recently but ours does have some odd quirks....

YY we might need to slash the price, I think that's the most likely option. See then I wonder if we might be better to keep them in it on a rolling month by month basis (possible with our agreement) and just wait for someone to buy it.

As suggested by specialist we may have to consider a deal on rent or something to appease them if we ask them to let people view it.