What is ‘tenant in situ’ it is a house that is sold with a tenant inside it.
What you need to know before purchasing a house with ‘tenant in situ.
It sounds great, doesn’t it? By a hous,e and you don’t have to do a thing, you can close your eyes and the rents will come in. Don’t be fooled!
Never ever purchase a property with a ‘tenant in situ’ without getting to know the tenants and landlord first. Recently we have had a mixture of experiences thanks to more and more landlords purchasing in this manner.
In a poorer area of Sheffield, we were instructed to take over the property after completion, and this experience was great, even though we were a bit worried about this. The neighbourhood was a state, but the house was great inside, and the tenants were very responsive.
In a more affluent neighborhood we were instructed by another client to manage their property and things could not be any worse – the tenant refused to engage, she refused to continue to pay rent and at one point slammed the door on us (we found out later these were problematic tenants and the landlord struggled to evict them so just sold the property with ‘tenants in situ’). The landlords have made this mega expensive purchase and have not had any rent come in. They have had to serve eviction orders.
So, as I said earlier, when viewing these types of properties, get to know both the landlord and tenant. You will get a good sense of what they are like at initial meetings and even on viewings. Whenever we look at packages for our landlord, these are the types of checks we do – needless to say, with both properties, we were not involved with the purchase.
We provide a complete package and can advise on purchase and property management, so you deal with just one company. You are not a piece of luggage being passed around.
Are you thinking of getting into property, and are not sure what the ideal property is? Then talk to us – we are happy to always take your call