Has anyone any advice or experience of selling to a landlord then renting whilst your purchase to go through?

[whohellhe]

Sorry for the long winded title, couldn't think how to summarise our situation any better!
We're days away from completing our sale to a landlord (so no chain). We've only just found something and had our offer accepted on Saturday. Vendors want to move quick so we're looking at 6-8 weeks (touch wood).
Although our buyer isn't in a chain we don't want to mess him about and delay. Neither do we fancy moving twice with 2 toddlers, so we're thinking of approaching him to ask if we could rent our house off him whilst we wait for our new house.
Has anyone ever been in this situation? Are we foolish for thinking we could come to an informal arrangement with him?
We have a fairly good relationship with him.
Any thoughts would be appreciated, thank you.

We've been in similar situation and also on the opposite end. When buying a house (but moving abroad so planning on letting it out), our vendors asked if they could rent for a time as their new build purchase wasn't going to be finished in time. Our solicitor told us not to touch it with a bargepole (he's v cautious). I think it was something to do with them already being in residence when the tenancy started, which made a standard tenancy agreement invalid and therefore would be v difficult to get them out (this was a long time ago so I may be wrong)

Recently sold the rental house, with vacant possession. A buyer approached us in a tearing hurry as they had sold theirs and didn't want to risk losing the sale as their previous chain had collapsed. They wanted to move in to our empty house as tenants while the purchase proceeded. Again our solicitor warned us strongly against it. We could have ended up with an empty house again 6 months down the line when the buyers decided before exchange they didn't like it and bought something else. We need the capital so don't want to be LLs any more.

I think your best bet would be to ask your buyer if you can exchange asap but have a long completion date. That way everyone is sure that the sale will proceed, and you have your purchase price guaranteed.

I did this. We rented our house from our purchaser whilst my wife finished her studies and I stayed on at work to secure a bonus.

I know it was naughty, but it was easier all round to say that we gave vacant possession, but in reality we didn't move out until a good few months later.

We didn't have any problems - though you should proceed with caution.

Thanks both for posting so quickly. Sound advice too. Obviously we prefer the option of a long completion date but we also want to be fair (and not risk losing the sale!)

Malice - how did it work for you in terms of giving notice when the time came to move out?

It was easy for us as we had a fixed date. We completed on our current house on the same day that we sold (so weren't subject to the vagaries of a chain) and knew that we'd be out as soon as my wife finished Uni.

It was only a few months (completed 1st working day of Jan and then moved at the end of March)

We had the contract drafted so that we could continue to rent at 1,000 pcm in the event we had to (we were taking the time to have some work done at our current house (before we moved in) so wanted that flexibility - just in case)

Lastly, we'd have really struggled to move had we had to do it on a single day. We essentially had 3 months to move - well worth it!!!!!

it's possible, but it will be a lot of faff all round. Also you can't have a short AST and for two months you don't want to be doing inventories, references etc etc etc. 'informal' rentals are fraught with risk.

MUCH easier to move the completion date - exchange as planned but don't complete until 2 months time. The buyer doesn't pay out his money until completion but it is all tied down for you both.

assuming he isn't moving in?

Thanks specialsubject and thanks again to all above. In theory it seemed like a great solution but you've certainly given us a lot to think about. I'm due to exchange on friday so I am going to speak to my solicitor about a completion date that the vendors of our new house can work towards. If our buyer really pushes then we'll descend on mother.....suppose I should warn her :)