Buying a house direct from landlord?

[checkdressinggown]

I've lived in my current flat for 4 years. Last month, my landlord offered to sell the place to me - he owns a large portfolio of properties and is looking to offload a bunch of them. I'm interested - I like the flat and could afford it. But I'm nervous about dealing directly with him as a seller (ie. instead of through an estate agent). I'll be getting a solicitor, of course, and having a survey done, but is there anything specifically I should take care about? Has anyone else done this and what can I learn from you?

I wouldn't be the slightest bit bothered by not having Estate Agents involved. I'd just make sure I had a solicitors with the relevant experience.

best wishes.

An estate agent is just a 3rd party employed to market the property and find buyers for a hefty fee. Neither you or your landlord need one. Get the property independently valued, have a survey done and instruct solicitors if you decide to proceed.

My husband sold a house to his tenant a few years ago. He got several valuations, they agreed a figure, each got their own solicitor and everything went through very smoothly.

as it’s a flat you will probably want to check service charge costs, any planned work to the building and any potential costs, length of lease (if leasehold) etc.

Thank-you all! I knew that estate agents were just there to facilitate the deal and get £££, but somehow doing this outside of the regular system makes me very nervous.

I wouldn't worry about purchasing without an agent, once the sale is agreed they do very little - just make sure you have a survey done and have a good solicitor. If the property is managed by a letting agents there will be a clause in the contract about purchasing though and I wouldn't get involved with trying to cut out the agents though.

Get a survey done, use a solicitor now you are doing it the normal way. Estate agents are just match makers.

We bought our first flat from our landlord. Highly recommend it 😊 Everything was just easier for both parties.

It’s the solicitors who do the work to facilitate the sale, not the agents. You have a closed chain so the most simple of transactions. Just make sure you are happy with the valuation and start shopping around for a good mortgage rate.

Plenty of sales go through without the use of EA's, not unusual

Our tenant wanted to buy the house when we sold (year before last) and we were happy with this as it would have made for an easy transaction.
Where it fell down in our case was that the tenant was only willing to pay the valuation MINUS the rent they had paid over the previous three years (which amounted to some £50k). Needless to say we said we weren't interested and the delay meant that when sold 6-months later (manic times remember) it went for over £100k OVER their "suggested" price.

Ha, my landlord has actually been pretty useless, in a very background way ('a broken washing machine? well....' / vanishes for 2 weeks) so I'm kind of looking forward to having complete control over the place. New colours on the walls!

We've just done this - we didn't use an estate agent and both parties had a solicitor. One thing I would say is it will be classed as a sale with a sitting tenant which affects which mortgage lenders will lend to you. We used a broker and it was really straightforward.

A word of warning. I noticed it's a flat. You need to check what the level of service charge is and whether there is a large increase on the way. Further, whether any Section 20 works are planned by the management company.

You don't need an EA, but a generally competent conveyancing solicitor will assist.

Good luck.

That's bonkers of your ex tenant!

The couple of things to be careful about:
-technically the house is being sold either with a tenant not vacant possession which can affect mortgages as another poster has mentioned. So bizarrely you might have to move out for a short period to seal the deal or go to a broker.
-Estate agents tend to value a bit high to get the business so you don't want to agree a price that's the average of their 3 quotes. You can get a proper independent valuation from a RICS surveyor. You'll need a survey anyway but you might want to think about timing.

Other that it saves a ton of hassle

We are in the process of selling our two rental properties to fund a larger investment purchase.
One of the properties has recently been vacated and is going to market this coming week. Photos done yday.
The other property, the current tenants are interested in buying it, have agreed a price with them (good tenants that have been in the property since 2015 so slight discount) and solicitors have been instructed by both parties. Haven’t instructed an estate agent neither, waste of money.
As others have said the EA does very little once a sale is agreed so nothing nervous to be about. You still have to obviously pay rent to your landlord up to the day that the sale completes which is the norm. You also have all your tenant rights up until then.

I am renting the house I am buying and my solicitor is so relieved not to be dealing with estate agents. Don't forget your landlord will be saving the fees to sell. The solicitor should deal with everything else. Good luck

Agree. i don't think the tenant was in the real world.
He kept saying how selling direct to him would mean we saved on EA fees but he was completely out of touch with what those fees were.

Ironically he finally offered the full asking price when we decided to market but it was by then too late as interest in the property was very high and B&F meant the price achieved was in excess of anyone's expectations.

Length of lease is very important. If its got less than say 90 years it will be worth far less than one with say 190 years and will become worth less and less as each year goes by. Leases can be very expensive and something you need to get the vendor to sort out before you purchase.

Also service charges - some are extortionate.

Go into this with your eyes wide open.

What an absolute idiot. I offered my tenant a discount to buy my house when I sold it but it was the equivalent of 3 months rent plus what I would have had to pay an estate agent in commission. Less the whole 3 years rent is serious cheeky fuckery.