This is a common question asked by landlords looking to sell a rental property.
The answer will be in the tenancy agreement you gave to the tenant. You will first need to check the status of the tenancy in terms of whether you are still in a fixed term or not, and if you set the tenancy up in a compliant manner as that will dictate whether you can even serve notice, or the type of notice you can serve.
A good tenancy agreement should set out the notice you will give your tenant and it is actually a legal requirement to give your tenants at least 2 months’ written notice that you want the property back (‘notice to quit’) and the date they must leave.
When selling a rental property, some landlords are reluctant to serve notice as the typical sale in the UK takes between four and six months. This means that their tenant may leave long before the sale completes, and the landlord is potentially left paying a mortgage on a void property.
Not only that, but tenants are entitled to what is known as “quiet enjoyment” of their rental home and may not agree to allow you access for viewings. That means you would not be able to start the marketing the property for sale until after the tenants had left, giving you potentially six months to pay your mortgage without rent coming in.
Even if your tenants do allow viewings, they may not be keeping the property clean and tidy, so it may not “show” in the best possible light to potential buyers, which may impact on the price you could achieve.
Sell with sitting tenants
Of course, if you sell to a professional landlord property buyer like ourselves, there is no requirement to give your tenants notice or suffer long void periods, as we will buy your property with your tenants in situ, meaning you will receive rental payments up to the day the sale completes.
More and more landlords are choosing this route to sale, as it is guaranteed.
Even if you served notice on your tenants and put your property on the market with “vacant possession”, there is no guarantee that it will sell, or that, if it does, you will achieve the asking price.
With so much uncertainty surrounding Brexit, the property market has gone into a kind of stasis where many people are adopting a “wait and see” approach and not buying until the economic impact of Brexit becomes clearer.
However, as professional landlords and property buyers, we are always in “buying mode”.
So, if you want to avoid the hassle and financial pain of serving notice on your tenants and experiencing a long void period where you will be paying your mortgage, standing utilities, and council tax, then it is definitely worth considering our proposition.
We buy any property in England and Wales, in any condition, and with any kind of tenancy.
It is simply a case of contacting us and giving us your property details and we will make a no-obligation offer within 48 hours. If you accept our offer, we can compete the sale in a very short time period, subject to you having the necessary documentation to hand and being pro-active in assisting us in pushing the sale to completion.
The added benefit of selling to us is that there are no estate agent fees - typically 2 to 3% of the purchase price - and we can also pay your legal fees as part of the deal.
We always like to reiterate that we are genuine cash buyers with cash in the bank. We are not dependent on third parties or mortgage finance and this is why we can be so definite as to the guarantee that we offer. It is cast iron, and we can provide proof of funds via our solicitor, if required.
Finally, it is worth remembering that if you get one piece of information wrong on the notice you serve, the court will throw it out, and you will be back to square one in terms of starting the notice period.
That is why many landlords pay for a specialist company to undertake the serving of the notice - another expense that you will not face if you sell to LandlordBuyer.
Get in touch today for your no-obligation offer and experience the service we offer that has helped so many other landlords exit their investments quickly and without any form of hassle or worry.