Sell Property With Sitting Tenants

It’s common to feel anxious about the prospect of selling a tenanted property, regardless of why you might want to do so. You might be stressed by the idea of how certain tenants would react to a sale, and then there’s the regulations around protected tenancy to consider. All in all, you might think it’s not worth the hassle. However, we’re here to offer you a quick, easy and discreet way to sell tenanted properties.

At SellProperty.co.uk, we are experienced in buying tenanted flats and houses, no matter the timeframe, the condition, or the area of the property. We’ll ensure no void periods, and a quick cash sale also takes concerns about losing rent out of the equation. All we need are a few basic details, and then we can conduct a valuation and make you an offer. Nevertheless, if you’re new to how cash buyers work, it’s helpful to get a quick primer. Here is everything you need to know.

What Is A Sitting Tenant?

A person who is living in your house or flat when you go to sell it is called a sitting tenant. If you’re a landlord, part of your contract with all your tenants will be a promise that the tenant can still live in the property even if someone else ends up owning it. This is a surprisingly common scenario – indeed, there are more properties with sitting tenants in the UK right now than there have been in ten years.

Often, property owners will discount cash buyers without even asking whether they will take on a property with sitting tenants. We often do this, in fact, and we make the process exceptionally simple. We’ll outline everything you can expect from us below.

Is It Possible To Sell Property With Sitting Tenants?

Most people anticipate significant stress and difficulty when selling a property that has tenants, but it can be surprisingly simple. Our standing cash reserves make it possible for us to buy your tenanted house or flat just as easily as we can buy vacant properties. The benefits for you are immediate and substantial – you get cash in hand that was previously bound up with your property ownership, and you can use it for whatever you need. You also end your duties as a landlord, and we’ll take care of your tenants needs so that you no longer need to worry about whether they will vacate before a sale.

It’s also commonly thought that property owners have to tell any tenants they have about an upcoming sale. This isn’t true – and with our approach to property purchases and valuations, there’s no reason why your tenants need to know if you don’t want them to. We can assess your property’s value through our database, and we can handle any difficult tenants you have. So, no matter how many tenants you have or the details of their setup, we’d be interested in your property.

AST (Assured Shorthold Tenancies)

An Assured Shorthold Tenancy (also known as an AST) is an agreement that stipulates particular rules you must follow if you choose to evict your current tenants. Some provide tenants with this protection for a few months, while others span years or more. If an AST is in force, you need to provide your tenants with what is called a section 21 notice – a notice that they have two months to leave the property and find somewhere else to live. There’s no legal obligation to provide background information on the eviction, but if you can explain life changes to your tenants then the process is more likely to be amicable.

Protected tenants

In some cases, tenants of a property will fall under protected tenancy agreements. Such agreement is legally binding, and they mean that there’s a maximum amount that you can charge these tenants for their monthly rent. This can occur in a range of different cases, but the most common contexts include the following:

• A property that was first built before 1956
• A property where the tenancy that began before October 1978
• A tenancy that started before April 2007.

Your hands are tied to a degree when you have a protected tenant in your property. Most mortgage lenders won’t offer you what you need, and landlords will often be wary about buying the property. In this situation, it’s smart and effective to arrange for a quick cash sale. At SellProperty.co.uk, a number of our weekly purchases include protected tenants.

Life agreement tenants

When someone has the right to stay in a house or flat until death, they are called a life agreement tenant. If you own a property with a lifetime tenant, you can’t simply sell that property from under the tenant, and it’s very difficult to find grounds to evict the person. Still, lifetime tenancy properties are appealing to those on the market looking for a longer-term investment – they can expect to see the value rise with time.

If you’re currently looking to sell property that has a lifetime tenancy attached, we can help. Within just 1-2 days of hearing from you, we’ll do all the research required to make you a quick cash offer that reflects the property’s value relative to similar places in the area. While this is a complex setup for property owners, dealing with lifetime tenancies is all part of our day-to-day experience.

Assured tenants

An assured tenancy is one that affords the property’s tenants with protection against eviction, barring exceptional circumstances. In addition, assured tenancies come with the freedom to protest against rent increases by speaking to the rental assessment committee. These tenancies are relatively rare, mostly occurring between 1989 and 1997, but you’ll still see them included in some later rental contracts.

If you’re a landlord with someone who has an assured tenancy living in one of your properties, you can negotiate with that person to mutually terminate the tenancy on a chosen date. That said, outside of such negotiations, landlords working with assured tenancies have little room to maneuver. Far easier is the process of selling your property to us. We can complete the sale with speed and discretion, and you won’t have to give another thought to the nuances of assured tenancy.

Tenants with informal agreements

The standard case, tenants and their landlords have a signed agreement that is completed when the tenants officially state their intent to move into their new home. In this agreement, you’ll typically find key information about what the tenant can expect from the landlord in terms of things like inspections and repairs, along with what the landlord can expect from the tenant (such as adherence to rules about visitors and decor). That said, you might be surprised just how common it is for tenancies to be merely informal. Sometimes, this will be because adult children are renting from their parents, or friends are renting from each other. However, in other cases, old contracts were just lost over time.

Contrary to popular belief, nothing much changes if you don’t have a contract – as long as there was a verbal agreement. All the same rights and responsibilities are attached to tenancy, but the lack of clarity can easily lead to disputes.

Here at SellProperty.co.uk, we’re happy to take informal sitting tenancies off your hands entirely. We’re not troubled by such arrangements, and will follow our usual procedure of making a quick valuation of your property and offering you a sale price.

Frequently asked questions:

Is it possible to sell property with an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) agreement in place?

Broadly speaking, there are two options for making a quick cash sale when you own a property with an AST. For one thing, you can just proceed with an immediate sale to a cash property buying company like ours, and we’ll take care of everything to do with the property tenancy until their agreement is over. Alternatively, you can put everything in place needed to sell to us, and then delay the actual sale process until the AST reaches its end.

The terms we will offer you will be entirely unaffected by the specifics associated with your property’s AST. We are experienced in dealing with a wide range of sitting tenancies, and we’ve taken on properties with a range of different AST agreements.

What are the rights of a sitting tenant?

If a tenant discovers that their landlord is planning to sell, they have the right to terminate their agreement by handing in their notice. During the notice period, you are obligated to keep paying the mortgage while the sale process comes to its conclusion. In addition, it is within the sitting tenant’s power to decline to have viewings at the property, which dramatically cuts your chances of conducting a successful sale. Even those tenants who do allow viewings are under no obligation to keep the property in good condition – they can leave it as messy and unattractive as they like, further discouraging buyers.

On top of this, consider that most buyers will approach a mortgage lender, but mortgage lenders will almost exclusively agree to lend for the sale of empty properties. All in all, the rights of a sitting tenant complicate matters when it comes to selling.

What are the benefits of selling your tenanted property to us?

Here at SellProperty.co.uk, we have an experienced team ready to start the sale process whenever suits you. We are interested in all properties, regardless of sitting tenants, and we’re used to taking on the responsibilities associated with occupied properties. You’ll save the money you’d spend on estate agent fees, we can guarantee no void periods, and you won’t have to arrange for serving notices to your current tenants. In summary, we make it quick and easy for you to walk away from your tenanted property with no further stress. 

Reach out to us today if you want to learn more about what we can offer you. We’ll value your property and make you an offer within just 48 hours of hearing from you, and then it’s up to you to decide whether to accept. However, we think you’ll want to.