UK Landlord Forum / Life

Hi

Totally new here!

Due to redundancy we moved overseas in August so that my husband could take up a temporary postion.

We rented out our house in Scotland on a year long short assured tenancy and the tenants moved in on August.  The tenants are ok, the first three months rent was late but when we chased it up they paid, however we seem to be continually spending on the house.  A new washing machine, getting gutters cleaned, asking us to rent out a storage unit for the furniture they no longer want in the furnished house.  Since saying 'no' to the last request the relationship has became rather tense - to the extent that because we could not buy and install a new washing machine within one week they threatend legal action.

On the up side, things have turned out well here and my husband has now been offered a permanent position, which is such a relief.  The problem we now have is that although my husband is working and we are getting rent its still a struggle.  The rent just covers our mortgage and we have to send over money every month for insurance, maintanence etc.

Ideally we woud like to sell our home and clear all of our debt which would then at least allow us to start with a clean slate over here, but can we.

I know the tenants will not agree........do we have any options, I just feel we are working hard here to maintain a house in the UK that we can't afford and don't want.

Thanks for any advice.

Hello Fally,

I'm English by upbringing (but Scotts by parents) and only know English property law, so this reply is more of a pointer than a definative.  English law allows a change of owner, provided the rights of the tenant to occupy the property are protected and continue.  In England the sitting AST tenant makes the property less suited to high street estate agents, so many go through auction houses.  If I can assume Scottish law has similarities with English law then my advice is: Give a scottish property auction house (e.g. Wilsons or SVA - they are easy to Google) a ring and tell them what you want to do.  The auction house shuld be able to give you some knowledgeable general legal advice as part of them telling you how suitable your home is for selling with tenant in situ.

Let me know how you got on, please.  Thanks, Jeremy.