Buying our rented property

[MrsZ19]

Hi everyone
I’m currently renting the house we live in and absolutely love it here husband and I are looking at buying in the near future.
We were talking to our neighbours the other day ( social distancing over the fence 😃) telling them we would be sad to eventually leave this house as all our neighbours are amazing we live in an area close to work ect she suggested when we are ready to buy asking our landlord if he would consider selling to us so my question is has anyone actually done this and been successful or is it a silly thing to ask out landlord
Thanks for reading

No, but I’m a landlord and if my tenants asked to buy my house I’d be delighted!

Thanks that’s great to know 😃 hopefully when the time comes he will let us

we bought a rented house from our Landlord, it was remarkably easy.

As a LL myself l currently have two properties l wish to sell and would be most accomodating to sell to a tenant. I would happily discount them the agents fee as l wouldn't need an agent, and there would be no period of time in which l was without rent whilst sale was going through.

I did this about 15 years ago. An amazing property that overlooked a country park in one direction and countryside on all others. It was a no brainer. The rent a the time wasn't heap at £850 a month (for beds and room for a pony) and therefore not Only would the property be perfect but the mortgage payments were calculated to be cheaper. There was a small snag for you to be aware of. We rented via Reeds Raines - a NW estate agency. The seller asked for £280k which was a good price. On the day of exchange of contracts he popped into the agency and mentioned that he was selling and they pointed to a small clause in their contract pointing out that he had to give them a lot more notice to protect their future lost income. They also told him that we were getting it too cheap. In the end we paid another £30k but it was still worth it. Another day later and we'd have saved £30 as it would have exchanged. On the whole though, it was a painless process and allowed us to experience living there before we bought.

Yes friends did it. They needed to move urgently due to school intake boundaries so ended up renting. House was ok but not what they really wanted but in the end found it easier to make an offer to buy which was accepted and 10 years on still there.

If your landlord is using an agent, he would need to check his contract very carefully, as PP has said. There may be a clause to the effect that the agent is entitled to a percentage of the selling price.

Would any such clause be enforceable? The lettings agent are providing a service and that would end after a months notice (or whatever is stipulated). They're not offering a sale service or introductory service with intent to sell. In any event, all they need to do is give notice and end it all.
Fingers crossed it works out OP.

I did this the other way round in 1996. Found my dream house. Agreed a price and offer accepted. All chugging through solicitors when searches revealed the substantial extension had been built without any planning permission so it was withdrawn from the market. I looked elsewhere but couldn’t find anything I liked as much. I went and knocked on vendor’s door and asked if I could rent it while the retrospective planning permission was sought. We agreed and rent was fixed at the cost of her monthly mortgage payment. Once pp was granted we exchanged, completed, and I lived there happily for 17 years

Thanks everyone hopefully I will be able to buy it ok in love with our house ☺️