UK Landlord Forum / Life

hi All,

fantastic forum , the experience and straight talking on this site has been a great help with all things rented.I have been reading all the comments and advise from the side lines and have to classify this forum as the best for information and assistance on being a landlord. the good the bad and the ugly has helped me reach a decision that after weighing everything up being a private landlord is no longer for me. I have cash in my properties ( not mortgaged) that can perform better elsewhere and not put me at risk of a rogue tenant or letting agent etc cost me a load of money and hassle through no fault of my own.

so my question to you helpful and experienced people is I have tenants on both a 6 month and 12 month lets. I want to sell the properties with the minimum hassle for all and want to get rid of them before this time next year when the agreements end. Am I legally allowed to market the property for sale with a sitting tenant? do I need to change the contract to allow me to do this? I doubt the houses will be bought by another landlord ( there is a slim chance maybe) so as we all know selling your own main residence is a pain with viewings, people not turning up etc etc and doubt a tenant will want this hassle to be fair.  Or is the best advice to wait till the tenancy ends and then market it and just swallow the loss of the extra few months rent to have no hassle or any complications with the sale if I find a buyer ? 
thanks in advance for your comments and keep up the great work as the experience gained from everybody helps people  cope with the ups and down with this renting game and I for one have learned a vast amount from the Angry Landlord.

on a side note his grading of tenant types of who are the best people to rent  too gets 10/10. I rented to a young couple who were setting up home together for the first time, as per his advice they were about the middle for desired tenants, fast forward 6 months and they don't want to live together anymore after  playing housey housey (or mummies and Daddies !!) in my property but I am left with the mess of cleaning up after them as they had no idea what it takes to run a home nor it seems their legal obligations that they signed for on the tenancy agreement after they got to move into a brand new totally refurbished house ( cost 27K) but have left it in a state that I would rather forget and move on.
cheers

not trying to disrupt your thread, but I would be keen to hear more on candidate tenant grading.

Hi Martha,

the tenant grading info is on this site somewhere under other great advise for getting tenants . its goes from 1-10 and basically best tenant married/long term couple full time employment no kids or pets, clean and wash behind their ears.they have life skills and pay their bills and know houses need to be cleaned and looked after.
worst tenant  dss , single parent no job etc etc.
in the middle  of this is the couple who want to take their relation to the next level and set up home together for the first time. they are both in full time employment, no kids no pets. they then find he wont make the tea, she cant iron, neither of them realise that you  have to operate the vacuum or clean the bath yourself as mummy and daddy have always wiped their bums for them.
the magic basket they had at there parents house that you put your dirty washing in and two days later the clothes would then turn up washed and ironed back in your wardrobe does not seem to work now the moved into their first home.

Thanks senilespeedteam.  Very useful info.  The other one I try to throw into the mix is that a prospective tenant who is already settled in the area. has no aspirations to change jobs or get promoted and possibly has family nearby, would probably someone who would stay put and not want to up sticks after 6 months.  This cuts both ways of course if he turns out to be an arse or loses his job.

So sorry. I seem to have buggered up your thread, could you reply and repeat the gist of your original post?

hi All,

fantastic forum , the experience and straight talking on this site has been a great help with all things rented.I have been reading all the comments and advise from the side lines and have to classify this forum as the best for information and assistance on being a landlord. the good the bad and the ugly has helped me reach a decision that after weighing everything up being a private landlord is no longer for me. I have cash in my properties ( not mortgaged) that can perform better elsewhere and not put me at risk of a rogue tenant or letting agent etc cost me a load of money and hassle through no fault of my own.

so my question to you helpful and experienced people is I have tenants on both a 6 month and 12 month lets. I want to sell the properties with the minimum hassle for all and want to get rid of them before this time next year when the agreements end. Am I legally allowed to market the property for sale with a sitting tenant? do I need to change the contract to allow me to do this? I doubt the houses will be bought by another landlord ( there is a slim chance maybe) so as we all know selling your own main residence is a pain with viewings, people not turning up etc etc and doubt a tenant will want this hassle to be fair.  Or is the best advice to wait till the tenancy ends and then market it and just swallow the loss of the extra few months rent to have no hassle or any complications with the sale if I find a buyer ? 
thanks in advance for your comments and keep up the great work as the experience gained from everybody helps people  cope with the ups and down with this renting game and I for one have learned a vast amount from the Angry Landlord.

Always be wary of advice from a blog (including my own)
Do your own research

Hi Senile

You are 100% allowed to market a property with a tenant (I have bought three of these).  However please don't use the term "sitting tenant" when describing your properties as a sitting tenant is a tenant whose tenure is protected under the 1977 Rent Act and therefore is not subject to a market rent or a s21 possession order...I'm 99% sure you don't mean a sitting tenant, don't advertise it like that as no one will buy it.

A contract change is not required (although that's a bold statement given I haven't seen your contract, but I assume it is a "standard" AST)

You know your tenants and which tenants will accommodate viewings but I've been to many a viewing only to be not let in by the tenant for fear that a sale will mean they have no place to live.  What's in it for the tenant to wait in on a Saturday afternoon for a viewing?

ASTs don't "end" (as you say in your post) they become periodic tenancies and you may still need to go to court to get a possession order after the fixed period (you can't usually get the property back before the fixed period in any case unless you bung the tenant a lot of cash) so plan on 3 months no rent during possession order process and then maybe 6 (?) months no rent while you find a buyer....hopefully the tenants don't trash the place when they leave.

I tend to agree though, a house with no tenant with a lick of paint is ready to move into and is likely to be in better shape and a better prospect for a quick sale.  Many buyers will be put off simply by the mess that most tenants live in - with a tenant, a show home it won't be.

Best of luck

thanks for the advice Angry Landlord.

this is one of the reasons  I am selling up, as you state at the end of the tenancy nothing is guaranteed that they will leave at the end of the agreed term or put the property back in the state when they moved in .
the last tenant that left one of my properties I  used your check out instructions and even gave them a polite reminder of what they had signed up for and how the house should be at hand over and of the 20 items on the list they managed 5 , and they did not clean anything at all , or even empty the bins!!!

so no problem not having a tenant is the house at sale, but just need to ensure they leave when they should.

cheers