Buying tenanted property (to live in).

[wall2wallcarpet]

Asking for a friend who has had an offer accepted on a flat (which he plans to live in) that is currently rented out to someone else with the vendor as landlord.
Obviously the contact will specify "vacant possession upon completion" but is there anything else he needs to think of? At what point in the conveyancing process should he expect the tenants to be asked to go / gone?

I'm buying a vacant property and it's probably going to take a couple of months for the sale to go through, if he is in a hurry this is probably not the one for him.

absolutely this.
exchange only upon evidence that it is empty, and buyer has visited again to check the condition

once vacant, you can agree a sale very quickly, exchange and completion can be same day. easy to do if property is vacant.

Don't spend any money unless he's seen a valid paperwork with a date for end of tenancy.
No exchange until empty.

Why all the doom mongering? I have bought and sold properties that had tenants - one was a very difficult tenant too.
There has never been a problem with a tenant vacating. Even the tricky one. I give notice as soon as I put a property on the market, snd as mentioned upthread on two occasions I sold BECAUSE the tenant gave notice. I always say if they are happy to have viewings they can stay until exchange, otherwise it's two months notice. More often than not the tenant leaves before the two months is up, and if we agree I'm open to not charging for the full term.
Definitely all vacated before exchange, and do an inspection once they've moved and before exchange. Any damage done by them moving, malicious or not, will need to be remedied. This can all be part of the contract.
And many tenancies can be ended, by both sides, before the end of the term of the lease. There's often a break clause after X months.
Anyway, your friends solicitor should be on top of this and be advising accordingly.

The rental market has shifted significantly in the last 3 years. People are trapped because in many parts of the UK prices have risen beyond affordability and the availability of affordable rental homes is all but none.

Sitting tenants may not be in a position to move and in order to qualify for assistance from their council, they essentially need to be forcibly evicted before the council will act.

If this tenant has given their notice, that's great. If the tenant is to be moved on, that could be a huge issue and delay the purchase for many months which is useless to most occupier-owners.

mondaytosunday

so what you are saying is precisely what everyone has advised?
vacate before exchange, do an inspection before exchange etc?
So no-one was actually doom mongering, just saying the same thing as you?

But I have to agree with PinkFootstool that the likelyhood of them staying until you force eviction is very high now due to the pressure on the rental market and the need to get council housing

there's a big ole logjam in the housing market!

What was the outcome? Did all go okay?

I noticed this because I recently viewed two properties which were tenanted (you're not told this before you view). Both tips despite huge price but as has been said "don't exchange before vacated". Was told the tenants "were looking"...too vague.

I bought a flat two years ago, tenants had nowhere to go at the time. As the process advanced the solicitor wouldn't agree to exchange until vacated. We viewed again before exchange, the place was empty and completely redecorated so we went ahead and exchanged and completed the same day. Tbh I hadn't realised a tenanted property could be such a minefield so probably wouldn't do it again, I was lucky.

He needs to look into how long eviction proceedings are taking in the area of the flat. Round here the wait is currently 4 months.

He should also be very careful in checking other corners cut by the landlord. The vast majority of decent landlords selling up will go through the eviction process, then sell. The ones that don’t are often the ones trying to squeeze every single penny from the property and those are also the ones that often cut corners in other places.

Didn’t realise it was an old thread

The tenants need to be out before exchange.
The alternative is completion being contingent on vacant possession which means the buyer doesn’t get a definite date. If the buyer is eg living with family that might not matter, although they would need to check that their mortgage won’t expire. I reckon that’s only worth considering if it’s a really good deal and buyer has somewhere to live in the meantime, bearing in mind it could take months to get tenants out.

We bought a property that had tenants. They came to the end of their tenancy and were given a one month rolling contract. There was no problem at all. Our solicitor did advise us to view again after exchange (tenants were still there) but prior to completion (tenants had gone at that point)

It’s lucky that they left without court proceedings.

The problems fall when buyers (and sometimes even landlords) don’t realise that the end date on a tenancy or even giving notice doesn’t actually mean the tenants have to leave on those dates. In some places the wait time for court to obtain the actual eviction order can be months