Sell your tenanted property fast — without evicting anyone.
The tenant stays. The rent keeps coming until the day we complete. No notice, no void, no agent asking for vacant possession. One cash offer for the house exactly as it is, tenancy and all — anywhere in England.
Empty, via an agent
Tenanted, to us
Agents want the house empty. The law no longer makes that easy.
Until recently a landlord who wanted to sell served a Section 21 notice, waited two months, and listed an empty house. Since the Renters' Rights Act came into force in 2026, Section 21 is gone. Selling with vacant possession now means the landlord's selling ground, four months' notice, and a court hearing if the tenant doesn't leave — on top of the void, the fees and the one-in-four chance the mortgage buyer walks anyway. For most landlords, selling with the tenant in place has gone from the awkward option to the obvious one.
Four months before the house is even empty
Notice under the selling ground is four months, can't be used in the first year of a tenancy, and ends in court if the tenant stays put. That's a third of a year of rent you still collect — but a third of a year you can't sell.
Then a void, then the market
Once it's empty you're paying council tax, insurance and the mortgage on nothing while an agent takes photos, holds viewings and waits for a buyer whose lender then wants a survey. Five months is normal. Longer in Grimsby or Scunthorpe.
Then a chip, then possibly nothing
The survey finds the things a rented house always has — a tired kitchen, an EPC D, a damp patch — and the buyer renegotiates. Roughly one in four sales falls through after that point. If it does, you're back at step two with a house that's been empty for nine months.
And a tenant who did nothing wrong
Most landlords selling up in 2026 are leaving because the numbers changed, not because the tenant did. Serving notice on someone who has paid on time for five years, to sell to a buyer who may not complete, is the part of the vacant route nobody enjoys. It's also now optional.
Everything carries over. Nothing changes for the tenant.
A tenanted sale is a sale of the house with the tenancy attached. The law is clear on what moves and what doesn't; here's the list, so you know exactly what you're agreeing to before we make an offer.
The tenancy
The agreement transfers intact — same rent, same terms, same tenant. We become the landlord on completion and write to the tenant to say so. They don't sign anything new unless they want to.
The deposit
Stays in its protection scheme and is reassigned to us, with the obligation to return it at the end of the tenancy. Your solicitor arranges the transfer; you don't hand the tenant anything.
The rent
Paid to you up to the day of completion and apportioned on the statement, exactly as service charge or ground rent would be. If the tenant pays on the 1st and we complete on the 10th, you keep nine days' worth.
Arrears
Any rent owed up to completion stays yours to recover — or we can agree to buy the arrears with the house and settle it in the figure. Tell us which; both are normal.
The licence
HMO and selective licences are personal to the holder, so we apply for a fresh one on completion. The tenancies carry over unchanged while that happens. We buy licensed HMOs in Lincoln, Grimsby and anywhere else they exist.
The paperwork you've already got
Gas safety, EICR, EPC, deposit certificate, right-to-rent checks, how-to-rent guide — the file you keep as a landlord is the file we need. If a piece is missing we'll tell you whether it matters before we offer.
From first message to completion, with the tenant none the wiser
The same four steps we use for every purchase, with a tenancy file in place of a viewing.
Tell us about the property and the tenancy
Postcode, type, condition, what the tenant pays and how long they've been there. The form takes a minute; WhatsApp works too.
Get a firm cash offer
We look at the house, the street, the rent and the tenancy, and come back with a figure you can rely on — usually within the hour. No obligation.
Send the file
Tenancy agreement, deposit certificate, safety certificates, licence if any. We instruct and pay for solicitors on both sides. No viewing, so the tenant isn't disturbed.
Complete
Rent apportioned to the day, deposit reassigned, tenant written to. The money lands; the tenant's next rent goes to us. Typically 14 days from acceptance.
What we'll ask you for
- The tenancy agreement (or confirmation it's periodic)
- Deposit protection certificate and prescribed information
- Current gas safety certificate and EICR
- The EPC — any rating, we don't need a C
- HMO or selective licence, if the property has one
- A note of the rent, the payment date and any arrears
- Right-to-rent checks and the how-to-rent guide, if you have them
- Anything the tenant has raised that's still open
Empty through an agent vs. tenanted to us: a typical two-bed terrace
Take a 2-bed terrace let at £650 a month, worth £110,000 with vacant possession — the kind of house we're asked about every week in Workington, Boston and Scunthorpe. The tenant has been in four years and pays on time.
| 2-bed terrace, £650 pcm | Serve notice, sell empty | Sell tenanted to us |
|---|---|---|
| Time before it can be marketed | 4 months' notice under the selling ground, plus a court hearing if the tenant stays | None — offer the day you ask |
| Rent received while selling | 4 months during notice, then nothing for the void and the marketing period | Every month to completion, apportioned to the day |
| Sale price | £104,500 (95% of asking after a survey chip) | £85,800 cash offer (≈78% of vacant value, fixed) |
| Rent lost — void and marketing | −£5,850 (9 months × £650) | £0 |
| Agent, conveyancing, EPC & certificates | −£4,580 | £0 — we pay both sides' solicitors |
| Council tax & insurance on an empty house | −£1,800 | £0 |
| Chance it falls through | Roughly 1 in 4 | None — no chain, no lender |
| Time to money | 10–13 months, if it completes first time | About 14 days |
| Net in your pocket | ≈ £92,270 | ≈ £86,100 |
Worked example, not a valuation. The agent route can leave you with more if the tenant leaves quietly, the house sells first time and the buyer's lender behaves — and a year of your time and attention is worth nothing to you. For most landlords leaving the market in 2026, the £6,000 gap buys ten months, a tenant who keeps their home, and certainty. Your own figures are in the comparator at the top of the page.
The towns where tenanted sales are most of what we do
Cheap stock, high landlord ownership and cautious lenders — the same pattern wherever we buy. Each page below has the local detail: licensing schemes, estate construction types, what a terrace there is actually worth.
Somewhere else? We buy tenanted anywhere in England. Start from the county: Cumbria · Lincolnshire · or just send the postcode.
Selling a tenanted property in 2026: what's changed, and what hasn't
For twenty years the way to sell a rented house was to empty it first. Section 21 made that simple: two months' notice, no reason needed, and the tenant left. That route closed when the Renters' Rights Act came into force. Every tenancy is now periodic, no-fault eviction is gone, and a landlord who wants to sell has to use a specific ground, give at least four months' notice, and go to court if the tenant doesn't go — which, with the alternative being homelessness, a lot of tenants reasonably won't. If you're searching for how to sell a house with a sitting tenant, that's the background: the vacant route hasn't just got slower, it's got uncertain.
What hasn't changed
A landlord can still sell a property with the tenancy attached, at any time, without the tenant's permission and without affecting their rights. The buyer steps into your shoes as landlord on completion; the tenancy, the rent, the deposit and every obligation transfer with the deeds. This has always been possible. What's changed is that it's now usually the better option, not just the quicker one. The market has noticed — tenanted property sales through cash buyers have grown sharply since the Act, and most of what we buy in Grimsby, Scunthorpe and Workington comes to us with a tenant in it.
Why lenders make it hard and cash makes it easy
An owner-occupier's mortgage lender won't lend on a house with a tenant in it, so the open market for a tenanted property is other landlords with buy-to-let finance — a smaller pool, more cautious since 2024, and still subject to a valuation and a survey that can chip the price or kill the deal. A licensed HMO narrows it further; most buy-to-let lenders won't touch one. A cash buyer for tenanted property isn't borrowing against the house, so none of that applies: we can take a periodic tenancy, a licensed HMO, an EPC D, and a tenant who's been there since 2014, and still complete in a fortnight.
What it's worth
Honestly: a little less than the same house empty. A tenanted property is worth what it is as an investment, not as a home, and we're taking on the tenancy, the licence application, the arrears if there are any and the EPC work when it comes. Our offers for tenanted houses usually land around 75–80% of the vacant-possession value, with every fee paid by us and the rent still yours to the day of completion. Against that, the empty route costs nine months of rent, agency and legal fees, a survey chip and a one-in-four chance of collapse — which is why the net figures in the comparator at the top of this page are closer than the headline percentages suggest. If you'd like to see the same maths for your own house, ask for a figure; it takes a minute and costs nothing.
The tenant's side
Nothing changes for them except the name on the rent demand. We write to the tenant after completion confirming who we are, where the deposit is now held, and that the terms are the same. We don't raise the rent on completion, we don't serve notice to re-let at a higher figure, and we don't do viewings before we buy — the first a tenant hears of the sale is usually our letter. If you'd rather tell them yourself first, that's fine too; most landlords do.
If the tenant is the problem
Arrears, damage, a tenant who stopped replying — we buy those too. The figure reflects it, and we take on the recovery. It's a different conversation from a well-behaved four-year tenant, and we'll have it straight. Tell us what's going on when you ask for the offer; it doesn't change whether we buy, only what we pay.