Do my tenants need formal two months notice when the house goes on the market?

[katemiddletonsnudeheels]

My tenants have lived in the house for twenty months and I am going to be selling; they know this.

However I am very conscious the house may not sell immediately.

Do I need to provide formal two months notice for them, and if i do, do they actually need to move out at that point?

It seems more sensible to wait until there is an offer and then give them two months notice as house sales generally take around 8 weeks anyway IME.

Our old landlords were really annoyed that we gave them notice rather than staying to sell their house for them. They even tried to claim that we needed to give them 2 months notice (we didn't).

On the other side, when buying houses, having tenants in place is off putting. I wouldn't even consider paying for a survey or anything else until the tenants had gone because you cannot know that they are actually going to move out, and at best it's likely to very much delay the process.

What contract are they on? Being able to break at 22 months suggests monthly rolling?

I'd give them a heads up on May 1st that you're going to sell and give them official notice on June 1st if there has been enough interest that it seems it's going to sell quickly.

You might think you have viewings sorted for now, but that could change if the property takes time to sell. Friends were renting, and they agreed with the landlord to facilitate viewings. But after three months of viewings, they got rather fed up of having to deal with people traipsing round their home and having to deal with estate agents. They had a crawling baby so they asked that viewers took shoes off, but the estate agents didn't respect this and trailed mud everywhere (then the landlord tried to keep deposit for the state of the carpets). There were issues like viewers showing up at the wrong time, estate agents not giving any notice, landlord demanding that they allowed people in on days when they already had plans ... the relationship between landlord, tenant and estate agents completely broke down over it. If you are selling your own house, the viewings are something you accept because there will be a benefit at the end, but if you are a tenant it's just an inconvenience and an intrusion.

I'm sure you are nicer than that but please be aware that the viewing process could be drawn out and estate agents do not always do what they say they will.

In the end my friends gave notice and moved out. The landlord was really unpleasant about it because the landlord felt that the tenants should patiently stay in place until the sale was agreed, and instead she ended up with a 6 month+ void period.

It would be fair better for everyone to give notice now rather than subject your tenants to potentially months of inconvenience.

Monthly rolling, yes.

Thanks, Anchor

They are free to give notice whenever they wish, to be honest it would be easier for me if they did.

However, I think they will want to stay as long as possible.

I hope you have told your tenants that the viewings are legally up to them despite what the contract may say.
It's very unfair they get disruption with no benefit.

are free to give notice whenever they wish, to be honest it would be easier for me if they did

So why don't you give them notice?

That was the whole point of the thread, Vince :)

I want to give them notice but am also conscious they are people and would hate to leave them in an awkward position.

We had a similar situation and got our EA who also manages the letting to talk to the tenants. Luckily they were already thinking about moving on so we served 2 months' notice.

We were fortunate that an offer was made after 2 weeks on the market. Tenants moved out after 2 months and it took a further 2 months for the sale to complete which was annoying but we had contingency funds to cover mortgage for about 6 months.

Good luck!

Issue the notice now if they are on a rolling contract. Assurances that they will leave are meaningless, no buyer can exchange until they have physically gone. Yes, the place will then be empty with no rent and the bills will be down to you, but that's how it is. I'm a landlord.

Give them the notice now, I suggest.
If I was a potential buyer I would not put in an offer unless the property was vacated by the tenants tbh.

I think we assumed you wanted them in as long as possible! You'd better serve notice ASAP then and hope they leave on time