More often than not, a buy-to-let is an investment strategy that, one day, you will want to cash in. Unlike withdrawing money from an ISA or selling stocks and shares, your bricks and mortar investment may have strings attached in the form of tenants.
While some landlords can wait until a tenancy agreement comes to a natural end before they dispose of their asset, others need to sell property fast. Given that tenants are a well-protected group and that evictions can be a complex, drawn-out process, as we have written about here, selling with tenants still in place is the only option for some.
Be aware, however, that not every High Street agent will take on a property where tenants are seeing out their contract - especially if they don’t have a lettings or property management division. That’s why LandlordBuyer has developed a special service for investors who need to sell property with sitting tenants.
As well as buying property, LandlordBuyer is itself a professional landlord and portfolio manager. Our property team can take over a tenancy so the incumbent tenants can stay in their home. It’s a great service for the many decent landlords who are concerned about the welfare of their tenants – especially those with lifetime and protected status - as well as for those who don’t want to enter into the ‘no fault’ eviction process.
Take for instance our client, Mr P. The sitting tenants had been in his property for more than 17 years and although the landlord needed to sell up, he wanted them to remain in the house as they’d always been reliable. LandlordBuyer was only too happy to oblige and the tenancy was handed over to us as an ongoing concern with the minimum of disturbance.
As soon as the completion of your sale is achieved - which can be in as little as seven working days if you’re in a hurry - our property managers will contact your tenants and reassure them that they will be looked after. In most tenancy takeovers, the tenants won’t notice any difference – they’ll just form a relationship with a new contact.
It’s also possible that your tenants will be offered the opportunity to buy the property they have been living in. It’s something we can make possible with ease, as LandlordBuyer is part of an overarching group of property companies that includes online estate agent Move Places. Using our wealth of sales knowledge and lettings experience, we can assist tenants however they wish to proceed.
Of course, many landlords use our fast and fair cash buying service as they have a ‘problem property’ – perhaps with anti-social tenants or rent arrears – and they would rather avoid the hassle of personally resolving the issues.
In these cases, we will buy the property with the sitting tenants and will assess the health of the investment before deciding the best course of action. Inevitably, removing the tenants may be the most sensible option – especially if any laws have been broken - but that will become the concern of LandlordBuyer. Many property investors who sell to us take comfort that they are handing over the let’s issues to a professional landlord and property management team, rather than try to self-manage a challenging recovery or evictions process.
If your buy-to-let has a short lease or an unlawful EPC, we can also help and keep your tenants in the property. As soon as your sale to us completes, our property managers can carry out any work needed and extended leases so there is security for the residents.
If you can relate to any of the above, we’d love to hear from you. The quickest way to make contact is to request a free, no-obligation cash offer here. Let’s talk tenants today and get your sale started.