Tenants won’t allow viewing - implications?

[Stibble]

I’m a potential first time buyer and have been keeping my eye on a property that’s been listed for well over a year, and which is cheap for the area, and was last reduced nearly a year ago. The photos are of a very messy lived in environment (I have fairly lax standards but it’s really clothes chucked everywhere, floor barely visible..). However it doesn’t look very unclean or mouldy or anything, more like teenage mess than a hoarder, and it was last sold less than 20 years ago and looks fairly up-to-date then. I finally got in touch with the estate agent and they said they’ve given up doing viewings as the tenants never let them in. They said they would get in touch of the situation changed, but basically it sounded like no point being interested in the property for now.

I’m wondering if we just wait for them to possibly contact us. We are not yet in a position to buy anyway, waiting for a small inheritance to arrive which would be a deposit, not sure how long it would then take to get mortgage approval, we haven’t really looked at that yet. But if we do get all of that done and still haven’t heard I’m wondering if there’s any point offering less than the asking price without seeing the inside? I’m also wondering why they seem to have been in this situation for so long - if the owners want to sell would they not evict the tenants? Or could the owners live there and be somehow selling against their will? (I think they said ‘tenants’ though…). Anyone encountered anything similar?

I would keep an eye on it, maybe when you are closer to being ready to buy email the agent and ask them to contact you if and when viewings are possible.

Do not put in an offer without seeing it. All kinds of damage could have occurred and there could also be huge problems getting the tenants out. I think really I would probably consider this property a bit of a no go. It’s just languishing there on the listings because there are problems.

Whoever the owners are should absolutely be evicting the tenants (tenants are not obliged to allow viewings) if they really are willing and able to sell.

Tenants don’t have to provide access to viewings. You can’t buy somewhere with a sitting tenant if you’re intending to live there yourself. Not all tenants leave at the end of their contract, it could be months and involve court if the current owner even wants to evict them. It could also be sold to another buy to let landlord willing to take on the tenant(s), which would explain the below market price. By all means tell the agent to contact you in the event that it becomes vacant but if it does you might find it’s suddenly worth a lot more.

Thanks that’s helpful. Yes I’m assuming the price might jump up if it does suddenly become actually possible to view, it’s tiny and a bit weird in various ways but in an otherwise expensive area and with a huge garden, whereas nothing else in our price bracket is likely to have a garden at all. Oh well, sound like all we can do is get our own stuff in order and try and be first in the queue if the situation changes.

Keep an eye out and maybe go into the estate agents and explain your situation and that you'd like to be contacted. You have nothing to lose.

If you go on the land registry website you can pay a fee of around £6 and find out who the owner is.
You could then contact them directly.
Im sure they wouldn’t be happy if the knew the estate agents attitude.

That's all very well, but the owner is creating the problem himself by trying to sell a property while they still have tenants in situ (i.e. cake and eat it springs to mind). The EA is probably aware of that and, together with the tenants unwilling to allow viewings (they don't have to), there is little point in a potential buyer starting the buying process.

Only the tenant themselves, or the courts, can evict a tenant. The landlord can serve a notice that they would like the tenants to leave, but it is only a notice. Once the notice has expired, the landlord can then begin proceedings to evict via the courts, but that will take many months.

A sale to another landlord might be more successful but would a landlord go ahead and purchase without a viewing? It could be that the tenants would like another landlord to take over their tenancy agreement, but that would suggest that the tenants do not want to leave.