Giving notice to tennant and letting them stay longer

duffysfarm

I am giving notice to a tennant to vacate a house. The notice period will bring us up to just before Christmas. I will be selling the house and estate agent says Christmas is a bad time to sell and would be better of waiting until the new year. I am wondering that if I give notice to my tennant to vacate but let them stay longer than the notice period am I giving them extra rights?

amcalester

Can you not just delay giving the notice?

I wouldn't take the risk of deviating from the RTB proscribed process, only you will lose out.

Del2005

There's a minimum amount of notice that you need to give depending on how long that they have been resident. I can't see any issues with exceeding the minimum notice once everything else is done correctly.

duffysfarm

Thanks for the replies. Their second year anniversary is up now in 2 weeks so I want to give them notice be for this is up. At the same time i will have to sit down and look at the regulations and see if the 3 years and longer notice period will take them into when I actually want them to leave.

gizmo81

The tenants may want to leave before the notice period is up if they find a property.

Annasopra

There is a paragraph here saying you can agree a longer notice period

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/housing/renting_a_home/if_your_landlord_wants_you_to_leave.html

Depending on your relationship with the tenants, how about calling in for a chat (giving appropriate notice and agreeing time etc).

Explain the situation to them - give them notice to vacate, but with an option to extend should they need the time - also give them the option to leave earlier (without penalty, assuming the property is properly cleaned/no damage etc) if they find a suitable property to move to in the meantime.

After your chat, you can then issue the official notices, but at least they wont' be caught unaware. Keeps good relations (hopefully) on all sides!

This worked very nicely for my family when we were moving back into our house after renting. It was around the same time of year - official notice period would have been mid December (and we badly needed the house back - ended up renting a holiday home nearby for a month or two so as not to inconvenience the tenants) - all ended very amicably and the ended up finding a suitable home nearby and were out a few weeks before notice period ended.

The_Conductor

Honestly- I'd be inclined to follow the letter of the law.
It specifies a minimum period of notice.
Multiply this by 2 or 3 - to give them plenty of time- and put in a clause giving them the option of leaving early.
Once you go down the road of having an informal chat with them to say they can stay longer- you are opening a can of worms- and the possibility of accusations of hearsay.
Give them as long notice as they want- if its Part IV related- make sure it falls within the strict window for the notice- and advise they can leave early at their discretion.

Be fair- but be formal- and sit down and make sure your dates add up.

wordofwarning

It is generally easier to find properties around Xmas. A lot of people give up their leases to go home for Xmas. Erasmus students leave to go home. Even in Dublin, the market is quite illiquid around Xmas when it comes to letting properties.

IMO you are better to get them out before new years when they will have lessor of an issue finding another property. Xmas time is a renters market in my experience.

Plus if you want to maximise your selling price, you are going to have to clean the property, touch up the painting, empty the property etc. That all takes time. You as well have that Xmas period to do some of that

Lux23

Do you need the rental income OP, is there any way the tenants can stay while the house goes up for sale? Plus if the house is in Dublin or any other city or big town, I doubt December will be as bad as the estate agent is making out. If that is true I will be househunting come this December!

duffysfarm

thanks for all the replies. I dont need the rent as such and it would be good to get them out over christmas so i would have time to lean it out but i dont want to force some one out at this time of year.
the relationship with tennant is just so so. they keep the property in good condition but paying rent on time was an issue in the past until i let them know it wasnt going to be acceptable.
i was mildly surprised at the estate agent. i thought he was going to tell me a load of waffle but he advised to to hold off until early janauary as this is a better time to sell with a vacant property. if he was greedy then i think he would have told me to sell now and put up signs and do viewings with the tennant in place. i havent agreed to go with this auctioneer but more than likley will.

Browney7

duffysfarm wrote: »

thanks for all the replies. I dont need the rent as such and it would be good to get them out over christmas so i would have time to lean it out but i dont want to force some one out at this time of year.
the relationship with tennant is just so so. they keep the property in good condition but paying rent on time was an issue in the past until i let them know it wasnt going to be acceptable.
i was mildly surprised at the estate agent. i thought he was going to tell me a load of waffle but he advised to to hold off until early janauary as this is a better time to sell with a vacant property. if he was greedy then i think he would have told me to sell now and put up signs and do viewings with the tennant in place. i havent agreed to go with this auctioneer but more than likley will.

Is the house more geared to first time buyers or a trade up house? Market might be more buoyant with buyers in January when the banks are in the new year so they can start throwing income multiple exemptions at people again. That said, CBI rules could change before then and remove potential buyers from the market!