Seller wants to stay on after exchanging contracts

[asks62]

A bit of a strange one I must say in our journey of finding our first home. We've had a few difficult scenarios thrown at us in the last few months but this one, I must admit is a bit too crazy to digest. Looking for any advice you can offer.

Offer accepted. We're in a rush obviously to beat the Jun 30 stamp duty deadline. (It's a big sum for us if we were to delay).
Few days later the estate agent says the sellers are doing up their new property and it'll take a few more months than planned earlier. So they're still happy to close the transaction by end of June but they will stay over for 3 months beyond the contract completion date.
They're happy to pay rent for the 3 months that they stay at technically what would be our property if we go ahead.

Problems:

1. Solicitor and bank have both red signalled it saying you need to take possession on contract exchange day. So essentially I've to lie to them saying I will be moving in there as soon as the contracts are exchanged. I'm extremely uncomfortable with this.
2. Since we would be owners all liability on the house is ours. Building insurance etc could be invalid if something were to go wrong like a fire, burglary etc.
3. We love the property. It's a nice area but we're too inexperienced to visualise the challenges we might get into because this could be breach of contract with lender etc.

The sellers seem genuine but I know nothing about them.

There are not many properties on the market because everyone seems to be buying one at the moment.
My mind says we should just let it go.

Is this a common scenario? Do you think it's worth the pain?
Estate agent is trying to talk me into it and I'm confused.
Any advice is appreciated.

Tell them you don't agree and will pull out if they don't vacate the premises on a date suitable for you, after completion. Don't be panicked by the June 30th date into doing something you will regret.

No!! Listen to your solicitor. The estate agent is def getting something out of this!

No, no, no.

They can always rent somewhere else.

Their housing situation is not your responsibilty.

They could easily become squatters.

Whayt if three months become six...?

As for this being common in France ... friends in France did it and couldn’t get them out for months ... the law was totally on the side of the ‘tenants, not the owners.

As others have said you seem very confused over some of the biggest financial decisions you’ll ever make. You don’t even seem to understand the difference between exchange and completion.

Please listen to the legal advice you have paid for.

No, I wouldn’t be happy with this. You’re right to have misgivings.

Ha they sound nearly as cheeky as the previous owners of my house. Two guys with separate onward purchases, one of whom was holding things up. The EA asked if he could stay as a lodger for a month when I moved in .

Absolutely no way. You need to take possession of the property on completion. If you go against your solicitors advice you won’t have a leg to stand on when if things go wrong.

OP please do not allow the pressure to sell before the stamp duty cut off lead you into this terrible proposition.

I would give an ultimatum today through your solicitor that completion requires vacant possession and that you will walk away if that's not guaranteed. The EA is acting for them not you. Your solicitor's advice should be followed here.

No. Either they find somewhere to rent, or you walk away and find another property

As said already - the stamp duty holiday now ends on 30th September. Basically, follow your solicitor's advice.

Based entirely on your OP; you are financing the house using a standard mortgage. If you allow someone to rent the property without the bank's agreement they can withdraw the funds. You will then have to repay the bank whatever you have borrowed. If you can't get another mortgage (which is likely as no other bank wants this liability) you will have to sell the house to repay the mortgage. If you arrange a buy to let mortgage you cannot live in the property.

It's very simple and not at all controverisal. If you have a standard residential mortgage you cannot let the property. Either say no, the sellers have to leave in completion, or withdraw from the purchase. There really is nothing else to consider.

As said already - the stamp duty holiday now ends on 30th September. Basically, follow your solicitor's advice

I think the current rates still finish on 30 June don't they? It continues on £250k sales til September but we don't know the OPs purchase price.

No. It’s not an option because of all the things mentioned. Pull out and start again. They will have listed and marketed on the basis of the stamp duty and known they’d need to rent for a bit.

Firstly you need to make sure you understand the difference between exchange and completion.

If what is being proposed is them staying on for 3 months after completion...No No No!!!!

That would be the equivalent of buying a car but letting the previous owner drive it around for three months without tax or insurance.

Don’t even think about it.

No op don’t be a mug

They wouldn’t even try this if you looked more experienced, it’s so ludicrous

No. A thousand times no. They have to find somewhere else to live.

Doesn’t really matter what other countries do or don’t do if the op isn’t in those countries.
England? Not a chance in hell.

Their renovations are their problem. Once the property is yours that’s it, they need to move.
They could rent elsewhere, live around the renovation, stay with family/friends.

There are so many things that could go wrong and even your solicitor has red flagged this, never mind the bank.

Could you get around this in a different way?
Your push to get into the house is to save on the stamp duty. Could you agree to complete outside of the stamp duty holiday, but they adjust your purchase price to compensate you for this? They will not have had the expense and upheaval of renting somewhere so it may be worth it to them.
You can still exchange but put a long completion date. There is no legal maximum term between exchange and completion.
*Ive made the assumption that you are FTBuyers as you seem confused by the buying process, this may not work if you need to hold on to a buyer for your existing property.

You could exchange contracts early and write it into the contract that they "rent" from you until completion date. I did that on a property I sold as there was a delay in extending the leasehold and the person buying it needed to move for their new job. But once you complete I think that's more risky and if you solicitor advises against it I would go with their advice. Your sellers have basically put their house on the market too soon given how fast things are moving in the current climate.

Hahahahahahhahaha FUCK NO!!!!!!!!!!!

If your solicitor is advising against, you don't need the advice of people on the internet. Take the professional advice you're paying for.

I actually did this, it was a complete nightmare from start to finish......

It was a little different in that they didn't ask first, exchanged and completed as normal and then just didn't hand the keys in and we got a phone call from our solicitor when we were on the way over with all our worldly goods in a moving van.

It's a nightmare to get someone out in this situation.....you can't just chuck them out, despite the fact you own the home. Technically you can get all the legal fees back it costs to evict them, and our contract had a standard clause that specified that the seller had to give interest on the purchase price for each day after completion they didn't give vacant possession but the wording is something like 1% of the interest the money would get in a Lloyd's bank current account which is pennies and we never saw any of it. We had insurance from exchange but them staying on invalidated it. The whole thing was a stressful horror and I've never felt the same way about living here since.

Absolutely, 100% NO! This is not normal nor allowed under the conditions of your mortgage. You’re risking everything by going through with this.

What is the EA thinking?!

No. They'll end up taking the piss and you'll have more hassle.