Selling a Home with Sitting Tenants

Some properties have what is known as a sitting tenant living in them. When you decide to sell a property it could become a bit more complicated if you have a setting tenant. You can still sell the property but there are some considerations when seeking a buyer. Sitting tenants do have some impact on the sale of your property. A sitting tenant has rights of their own and despite the home being owned by you, you must respect their rights if you are looking to sell the property.

A sitting tenant is a person that lives in your property. You are renting the property to them but it is more than a lodger as the property is seen as theirs while they live there. Typically, sitting tenants generally pay less in rent than other renters do with comparable properties. This usually happens for a variety of reasons. One of these reasons is that the sitting tenant had a long term agreement establishing the amount of the rent, where as someone renting may have a 6 month lease, a sitting tenant will often have a much longer agreement on place, usually in excess of a few years. Another reason could simply be that the sitting tenant partially owns the property. This usually happens when the sitting tenant is some sort of relation to the owner of the property, an example of this would be if a parent contributed a large amount of the price on their child's home and then the child was slowly paying the parent back over the course of living there. In other situations, the lower rent might have been set at that level because the tenant is experiencing financial hardship and needs a more income sensitive rent payment.

There are generally two types of sitting tenants. Protected tenants are those who have tenancy agreements that were made before 1989. If a tenancy agreement was made after 1989, then the sitting tenant would have acquired an assured short hold tenancy (Due to the new Housing Act introduced in 1989). Typically the assured short hold tenancy is better for the potential buyer.

The value of your property is of course affected by the presence of a sitting tenant. Typically, the value of the property will decrease. This is due to the fact that the rent that the buyer will receive from the sitting tenant will be lower over a period of time than what the buyer could have received from another tenant. This makes the value of your property lower when it goes on the market. However, do not despair. One can still sell a property even with a sitting tenant.

There are many property buyers that can assist you with the sale of your property including Swift Capital who are a very well respected company in this field. Many potential buyers are willing to overlook the fact that the property comes with a sitting tenant but if you do experience problems in this area you should get in touch with swift capital and seek expert advice to ensure you get the best possible price for your property. Another issue which can get complicated is houses in multiple occupation, this is where the house has sitting tenants but more than one group, swift capital are also experts in this area too so.