Would you sign contract

[VeryDiscombobulated]

We're buying a tenanted house, with vacant possession on the contract. We are ready to sign but the tenant is still in the property, they are in the process of buying a house, but in the early stages.
Is it safe to sign, I am thinking of waiting until the house is vacant first?

your vendor should have all the answers. maybe contact your solicitor for help and advice too.
you need to find out when their tenancy ends too. i believe you will be their new landlord. do you have a BTL mortgage?

Signing doesn't mean you are exchanging contracts so you can get it signed and say to your solicitor that you do not want to exchange until vacant possession (which to be honest no solicitor would exchange without vacant position anyway).

It could be months for you to be in though.

Absolutely this.

Signing commits you to nothing.

Don't exchange until property vacant.

Thanks, we will get as much information as we can before signing

Generally you sign your contract ready and your solicitor holds on to it but it doesn’t exchange contracts with the vendor until pay your deposit and commit to the purchase.

In no way would I exchange contracts until the house was vacant.

Are the tenants intending to stay until they buy? This could be months and months.

Your contract is with the owner, not the tenants. Even if they have been served notice if they refuse to go it could take the owner months and months to evict them.

ops contract is vacant possession, they will not be landlords the tenants are to be out before exchange of contracts so they don't need a btl mortgage.

And don’t believe a word the vendor says, either.

I would expect your solicitor to refuse to allow exchange until there is a known date for vacant possession. That would most probably be after the current tenants have exchanged contracts on their purchase, and they have a completion date.

And even then I wouldn’t exchange until the property was actually vacant.

What if the tenants completed but it was a ‘project’ and they decided to stay out for 3 months while they renovated?

Normally when you exchange the person agreeing to move on completion is the person you have the contract with. But in this situation you have a contract with someone who cannot actually guarantee that the tenants will move when they say they will.

Signing just gets things lined up to enable exchange.

I would happily sign with the tenants there, but not give authorisation to exchange until the house is empty.

No way would I Exchange Contracts until that tenant is gone and I have checked with my own eyes that they are gone and the house is empty.

As PP have said, signing the contract is not the same as Exchanging but still - I wouldn't be in a hurry to sign either seeing as the tenant is likely to be there until about December if they are only in the early stages of buying a house.

We will definitely check the house is vacant before exchange, after reading your replies it seems it's probably safe to sign, but ask for no exchange until the tenants have vacated.

Your solicitor shouldn’t allow Exchange without vacant possession (empty house) but it won’t hurt to make your wishes crystal clear.

From experience I would say that it’s important to visit the property again once the tenants have left and prior to exchange of contracts