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.

Estate agents will say anything to try and get a sale through.

When selling my flat and buying my house I completely ignored anything the estate agent said, and was guided by my solicitor. I suggest you do the same OP.

Of course they can but they don't want to, hence this ridiculous proposal

Of course they don't want to but that doesn't mean that they won't agree to drop the price or pay the stamp duty if OP says that she will only agree to extending the time between contract exchange and completion.

What's in it for you? Absolutely nothing but headaches. Say No.

@Doris86

Estate agents will say anything to try and get a sale through.

When selling my flat and buying my house I completely ignored anything the estate agent said, and was guided by my solicitor. I suggest you do the same OP.

SOME Estate Agents will say anything to get a sale through! 90% of the dozens of estate agents I’ve worked with were completely honest and always did their best for both sellers and buyers. They want buyers to become sellers in the future and recommend them, it’s simply not true that agents don’t care about buyers because they’re not paying the fee.

Just go back to the estate agent and say no. The vendor can move in to other rented accommodation or walk away

(Haven't read the whole thread so apologies if it has moved on)
To add another perspective, I thought about doing this (as the seller). We've just sold and obviously buyer wants to beat stamp duty June deadline. We're teachers and our school year finishes a few weeks later. I did consider seeing if we could complete by end of June then rent it for a few weeks as didn't want the upheavel of too many moves for the kids (got a toddler and baby). It would all have been done in good faith and for genuine reasons. - sounded like a good idea at the time!

HOWEVER when we looked into it further we realised it was really complicated and that the buyer was unlikely to agree anyway. I would just say no - they'll have the same issue with any buyer, surely, so I can't see them pulling out over it. People rent. We are going to rent between buying and selling.

Absolutely not! They will have to do what everyone else does - either live in it or rent somewhere else. Where do they think you will be living?

Your mortgage is on condition that the house is vacant. Only listen to your solicitor as s/he has your back.

Glad you've cleared up the confusion re exchange and completion and it's another hard NO from me.

If they haven't finished their new home, then it's on THEM to find a rental between completing on the sale of their house and them being able to move into their new house.
If they can't do that, then you have to let this one go, yes. Sorry - I know it's tough - the first house I was involved in buying, I found one I really liked but it was a deceased estate house, and just before contract exchange, the wrangling over the estate caused the house to be pulled from sale. Lucky, really - would have been tons worse if it contract exchange had happened!

Keep going - the sellers might decide to rent elsewhere so they don't lose the sale, or you'll find an even better house without the hassles.

A bit late to the party, possibly, but no - do not agree to what the vendors are suggesting.

When I was younger my parents were in a similar position to you. But they exchanged, and the vendors had to find somewhere (else - not the house they were selling to us!) to rent.

This is their problem, not yours. You insist that exchange date is the day you move in.

Oh, and I have managed to live on a house whilst it is being done up.

Do far it is not finished and we are in year three.

We do run out of money then start again.

No. I doubt your solicitor will be on board.

No no and no. Ridiculous idea and your estate agents are idiots for pushing it.

Any half decent solicitor will say this is a really bad idea, and they are right.

Be prepared to walk away if needed.

I’m glad you’ve read the stories and listened. Being a btl landlord is not for the faint hearted. You need very deep pockets and if the people decided not to pay, you have 2 ways of filing tenants to evict. The quickest way even without a backlog is around 8 months if all goes well. And you need proof eg a combo of late and non payment. And that’s with all the correct documentation. It could cost you around £700 to set up the rental payments on a small house even if the boiler and electrics are up to scratch and about 2.5k to go to court. So you could easily need tens of thousands.

We had a couple tell us they would complete by the end of August on our house purchase but then changed their minds at the very last minute. We did not want to let our patient buyers down so we told them that we would have to move into rented as they now wanted a few more months. Very annoying, but we were willing to do so.

We just moved to rental then they rang and said ok, they wanted to complete within a week. That meant that I would have to vacate our rented property and lay out for the term of the agreement - 6 months! They also indicated that they wanted more for their house. Unbelievable. I told them to take a running jump. They then invited us to their house to smooth things over and showed us a valuation which they tried to part cover up with their hands. I had had enough. I refused to take any more calls and let our solicitor know that was it.

If it sounds weird and you are uncomfortable please do not do it. Your solicitor will tell you not to. These things never end happily. Either they vacate or you do not complete. Simple.

Exchange and completion are two different things but you can exchange and complete on the same day. Not something I recommend op.

In theory you could let it to them as a "holiday let". However is there any reason why they themselves cannot rent somewhere for 3 months?

NONONONONONONO!

Bloody hell, NO!

Tell them you aren't bothered about them "doing it up" - you want it as it is because you are going t to "do it up" to your own taste.

Honestly - you will be stopping into a nest of vipers if you allow this - if they refuse to move out for any reason (they can't find somewhere they like; they have changed their minds abider moving the kids' schools etc) you will be STUFFED!

Don't do it.

You will become a landlord in the eyes of the law and will need to fulfil the legal obligations of a landlord (including registering with HMRC).

They will become tenants, and will be protected as such under the law meaning evicting them would take months if required.

@SchadenfreudePersonified

NONONONONONONO!

Bloody hell, NO!

Tell them you aren't bothered about them "doing it up" - you want it as it is because you are going t to "do it up" to your own taste.

Honestly - you will be stopping into a nest of vipers if you allow this - if they refuse to move out for any reason (they can't find somewhere they like; they have changed their minds abider moving the kids' schools etc) you will be STUFFED!

They want to do up their new place not the one the OP is buying

And just to echo other posters - say no and you do NOT have to provide a reason to them or lie and say you are moving in straight away even if you are not.

It will be owned by YOU - you can leave it empty if you wish and do NOT have to justify anything to sellers or the EA.

No No No - it would be a huge risk for you and you would need a buy to let mortgage

We have done delayed completion once in a case where the sellers were building a new house - so we exchanged in June and completed in December. But do not complete without vacant possession.

Good God. No.

@Gwegowygwiggs

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

^^^^^ THIS!!! ^^^^^

If they are happy to pay rent then they can do it properly and rent temporary accommodation.

Your mortgage will be invalid.
Your insurance will be invalid
You will need to do a self assessment to declare earnings.

There is no positive reason for you to do this. All outcomes are negative to you.

Think the OP has got the message now!

Good luck OP and don’t give up on buying the house, they’ll probably just drop the idea but continue with the sale.

@aretherereally4Hs

It's common to exchange and move a week later (I remember it feeling odd paying house insurance on the house we weren't in and then our buyer insuring our old house) but 3 months sounds ages!!!

is it common ? would those insurances be valid if needed, aren't they for owner occupiers. so insurer could decline cover if something amiss happened as nether party were the occupiers of the insured property a the time of the incident.