House sale- completion date

[MR M]

I am in the process of selling a tenanted property and have a buyer lined up who wants to live in it herself ie doesn't want a tenant there. I have previously issued a Section 21 to the tenant and given him adequate notice to leave. Unfortunately, he does not seem to be doing anything about finding alternative accomodation and I am concerned that he may still not have moved out by the time the possession date comes around.

My solicitor is now asking me for a confirmed completion date for the sale which he needs to write into the contract and then needs to be signed by both parties but I do not feel that I can give him this date and guarantee that the tenant will have left on the completion date. Until I am sure that the tenant has another property lined up, I am reluctant to give the solicitor a completion date and thus run the risk of losing the buyer.

Has anybody any suggestions on how to get over this problem? Many thanks

[davidjohnbutton]

You should not give a date to your solicitor until you have vacant possession physically of the property and if the tenant does not leave, you will have to go through the court process.

If you do give a date and the tenant still has not shifted by that date and the sale completes or fails to complete with the tenant still being in the property, you will be liable under your contract between vendor (you) and buyer to pay compensation for breach of contract unless it is written into the contract that the tenancy passes over to the buyer.

[MrShed]

Can you tell us the start and end dates of his AST?

*EDIT* oh, and also when you served the S21 and when it expires.

[MrWoof]

You can give your solicitor an approximate date. Phone your local county court and ask them how long accellerated possession normally takes and how long after this bailiffs normally take. In my area it is four weeks each, note that this is an approximate time but it will be close.

[Ericthelobster]

How about this as an idea?

If you think there's a good chance your tenant is going to stay put and scupper your sale - which will have financial implications to you - then how about giving the guy an incentive to leave?

Go talk to him and lay your cards on the table and see if he'll do the same; point out that if you have to evict him through the courts you'll have no choice but to do so - ie all he'll be doing is buying a bit of time for himself.

Tell him that if he leaves by the day specified in the S21 you'll give him, say, £500 cash, when he hands over the keys. Might grate a bit to have to do it, but as a pragmatic approach to avoid losing your buyer, it might be worth considering?

(Now someone will come along and say "noooo! that would prejudice the accelerated posession procedure" or something...!)

Good luck

[MrShed]

Good idea actually there from eric....you need to weigh up the chance of him staying and the financial implications for you against the financial loss if you follow this idea.

[MR M]

Thanks for your responses. This is a bit of a long winded response but here goes:-

davidjohnbutton - I do not think that I would persue this one but I will ask the question anyway. If I did give a completion date and this date was subsequently not met by me, could I counter-sue the tenant for my out of pocket expenses?

MrShed - AST commenced on 1st September 2003 and expired on 31st August 2004. Section 21(4)(a) issued on 19th September 2005 and states that I require possession after 30th November 2005

MrWoof - I always understood that the completion date was written into and was an integral part of the contract of sale and as such needed to bean accureate date but I stand corrected if this is not the case? Please advise.

Ericthelobster - I don't think its as simple as offering him an incentive to move. I will explain a little further. The tenant is elderley and claims Housing Benefit. He is currently going down the road of bidding on properties that the local authority have available for rent but this is obviously a bit of a 'lottery'. He is restricted concerning approaching private landlords because a) Some will not entertain DSS/Benefit claimants and b) the monthly rent which he can afford due to his circumstances and based on the amount he receives in benefits does not give him much scope. The area that the tenant wants to remain in is also pretty thin on the ground for rented accomodation at the moment in the price bracket that he is looking in and I do empathise with his problem in finding somewhere else.
I would consider offering him an incentive but I am really not sure that he would accept it if, come the last day, he didn't definately have somewhere else to move into.
I suppose though an option might be to agree a completion date of say a week or two after the S21 expires, the tenant then tells the local authority he has moved out and is homeless to avoid the landlord instigating court proceedings. I don't issue the court papers at that stage (which would cost me £150). He presumeably would be dealt with by the Local Authority as an urgent case and walks away with a few hundred quid in his back pocket. I suspect though that the Local Authority would want to see some proof that I was instigating court proceedings so I am not sure that this would work.
(I am not sure but I think I've answered my own question there)

Just out of curiosity. If I do instigate court proceedings can I claim any financial loss back from the tenant. Simimlarly as mentioned above, if I set and subsequently miss the completion date because the tenant has not moved out, can I pass any costs which I incurr on to him by way of a counter-claim

[Tax Accountant]

I don't think you will be able to obtain judgement for costs against a DSS tenant, especially any costs not directly related to the tenancy itself.

I have the following suggestion:

Issue proceedings for repossession. The DSS will then give priority to the tenant in finding him/her other suitable accommodation before the case even gets to a hearing. Explain the situation to the buyer. Tell the buyer that the worst case scenario would be that the buyer may not have moved out by the completion date but in that case he would be compensated by the rental income. May be you could agree in the contract to bear all the costs in obtaining vacant possession.

Ramnik

[MR M]

Thanks Karongo,

Are you saying that the buyer would temporarily take over the tenancy and obtain rent whilst I am dealing with the court proceedings?

What sort of costs would I be bearing in relation to obtaining Vacant Possession?

[MrShed]

Another good suggestion there from Karongo. They need to understand that if they currently want a definite date, then they run the risk of not being able to have the property vacant by then. Out of interest, would the new owner become responsible for having to follow up repossession proceedings once he took ownership of the property? I would do as Karongo suggests, best idea thus far.

[MR M]

I think that I would complete this aspect through to the end as I believe that this would keep things simple. The prospective purchaser is a work colleague and I know her quite well, but I am still trying to keep the sale on a professional basis

[cnrsoper]

If your tenant is to be given a priorty by the local authorty then he would need to be considered unitentionaly homeless, If he were to walk away from the property before you got your court order then he would be intentionally homeless, and the local council would be unable to help him. Sounds like you will need to be prepared to go to court. Remember that once you have your court order, the tenant will get temp accom from the council until they have found him permanent accom.