Selling a House with a Sitting Tenant

A sitting tenant is somebody who has a right to remain in a property following its sale. There are various kinds of sitting tenant. If the tenancy dates back to before 15 January 1989 it is likely that the tenancy is governed by the rules of the rent act of 1977. If this is the case, then, as long as the rent is paid, the tenant has to right to remain in the house for life. It is very difficult to sell a house fast with this sort of tenant unless the tenant can be persuaded to leave. Even following the death of the tenant, both the spouse and the children of the tenant have the right to continue to occupy the property.

Following the subsequent housing act that was introduced in 1980, a new form of tenancy agreement became the norm. This is the Protected Short hold Tenancy Agreement. This kind of agreement has a fixed term, which can vary from one to several years as agreed between the tenant and landlord at the outset of the tenancy. There is no requirement for the landlord to renew the tenancy once the original agreement has run its term, and so the amount of time before the tenancy agreement lapses is critical to the ease with which the house may be sold. Of course, the tenant could also be persuaded to move before that time.

A further housing act was introduced in 1988. This created further type of tenancy agreements: Assured Tenancy and Assured Short hold Tenancy. The time scale for these could be six months, and the landlord has no commitment to continue letting the property after this time. Most tenancy agreements dated from February 1997 are assured short hold tenancies.

The way of approaching a house sale depends very much on the type of tenant. In the case of an assured short hold tenant there should not be too much of a problem as the new owner has the choice of continuing to let the property of take possession in due course. It is a very different picture with a protected tenant, and the best course of action may be to offer a monetary reward for relinquishing the tenancy.

Swift Capital has been operating in the real estate market buying and selling properties for a number of years now - if you are looking for a fast house sale, or have a problem property and or problem tenants - Swift Capital can help!