Advice needed in delayed House purchase

[How]

Hi,

I am looking for advice for a friend of mine who is in the process of buying her first house.

The property she is buying is a second hand house, not owner occupied, it was rented. She was due to complete last Friday but the tenants had not vacated the premises so she was asked to hold off for another week. Which she did. But they still have not left.

Can she pull out of the sale? If so, will she get her deposit back? I believe the sellers solicitor holds this and is duty bound to return it if the sale falls through, is this correct?

If she completes, does she then become the tenants new landlord? Can she then get them evicted? If so, could this take a LONG time?

There is a rumour that the current owner is being forced to sell by his bank due to being in arrears with his mortgage. In this case, is it possible that he doesn't care if the sale goes through but will be quite happy to drag it out forever? And collect rent from his tenants in the meantime?

Are we entitled to call around to the house and ask the tenants if they have even been given notice to vacate?

She has a solicitor who is supposed to be looking after this. And an estate agent. But she seems to be getting no help whatsoever. They are all just saying wait and see???

She is a timid type. I am hoping to go with her to see her solicitor and/or estate agent today or Monday. What should we be saying to get things moving?

Any help would be much appreciated. She is very distressed about this whole thing.

Regards,

FH

 

[mf1]

Vendor should give vacant possession. If she is not buying with the tenant in place, she should be getting vacant possession. If they can't give her vacant possession, then perhaps she would be better off serving a completion notice, letting the time expire and then terminating the contract.

I wouldn't get excited about it. She should ask her solicitor what the news is from the vendors solicitor and ask for advice.

Things are so bad right now that none of us have any idea what crazy stuff is likely to arise in any transaction.

mf

 

[Bronte]

It's only a week, wait and see would seem to be the corrrect approach. Very very few sales actually happen on there due date. There are a lot of assumptions being made about the vendor. After going this far with the purchase there is no need to panic now.