moonie2011

Hi I'm after a bit of advice please.
We have a house in the uk which currently has good friends in as tenants.
We have accepted an offer on the property and the tenants have agreed and signed part of our contract with the solicitor to say they will move out prior to or on the day of completion.
We are asking that the buyers sign and exchange contracts and provide a non refundable deposit before completion so that we have some financial security ie if our tenants leave then the buyers back out we have an empty house with no tenants and no way of paying the mortgage
Both solicitors are saying that this cannot happen and that the tenants need to have vacated the property before contracts can be exchanged and that we will have to exchange and complete on the same day
Having previously been in a sale where if fell apart the day before signing and completing I'm really not happy to do this

Can any one advise whether this is correct or whether this is just our solicitors wanting an easy option

Many Thanks

Bo-Jangles

It will be to do with the legal matter of offering 'vacant possession': the lawyers need to ensure that the buyer receives proper title and that there isn't anyone else with any rights over the property. As a buyer you wouldn't want to get involved with any potential tenant / landlord issues and 'vacant possession' is a vital factor in legal transfer of property; otherwise you're into a different ballgame and asking them to sign up to buying a house with sitting tenants. If the buyer gets any sniff of problems around achieving vacant possession then I think you could be asking for trouble.

Ping Pong Pom

As a small comfort (but no assurance), you could always ask your solicitor to ask theirs to confirm that they hold their clients' deposit, so at least you know the funds are available. This obviously doesn't stop your purchasers from pulling the plug at the last minute, but money lodged with their solicitor shows lack of funds wouldn't be the reason for withdrawing and cleared funds already lodged avoids the possibility of a delay whilst their payment clears.

Bo-Jangles

Aside from the legalities I think it's a bit strong anyway to be signalling this now, the buyer is already committing substantial funds to the process in terms of searches and surveys and they suffer all the risk of you not ultimately selling to them. There is no legal commitment on you to sell nor any cost to you until those contracts are exchanged - they run the greater risk of someone gazumping them and you accepting a higher offer.

Chocoholics

Really difficult situation for you but not much you can do. Tenants have rights so the buyers would want them out before exchange of contracts. I would have thought exchange and completion on same day would work to your advantage as the house won't be empty before completion. Pity you can't do some sort of deal with your friends for them to move back in after a couple of days if the sale doesn't go through. Probably easier said than done! Good luck hope it goes well.