Thinking of Selling Your Investment Property?
There are several things to consider when selling a tenanted property. With the market quite hot, many investors are considering this option but you do need to weigh up some options before deciding on selling the property and potentially disrupting the tenants. When deciding to sell your investment property another area to consider is Capital Gains Tax and whether or not this will affect you at tax time. Before selling your investment property we recommend speaking with both your financial advisor and your accountant to make sure this is the best move for you.
Some regular questions we hear are:
Can I sell a tenanted property?
Can I sell a tenant property with a lease in place?
How do I sell a property without disrupting the tenants?
The RTA have some clear guidelines on selling a tenanted property, some of the main points to note are:
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You must honour the lease agreement in place. The tenant can not be forced to move out of a property is you place the home on the market. Any purchaser that buys the property will inherit the lease as well which may limit your prospective purchasers to investors or owner occupiers that can wait to move into the property until the lease ends. You may wish to mutually terminate the lease agreement but generally speaking, compensation Is given to the tenant for this.
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If there is a periodic agreement in place (often called a month to month) the tenant must receive 4 weeks written notice to vacate.
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The property manager/owner must give the tenant a Notice of lessor’s intention to sell premises (Form 10), which includes how they plan to market the property
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If the selling agent is different from the property manager, the selling agent must give the property manager a copy of each Entry notice before entering the property
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An open house or on-site auction and can only be held if the tenant agrees in writing, this includes taking photographs of the tenants belongings
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The property manager/owner must ensure the tenant has quiet enjoyment of the property (this can generally mean no appointments on Sundays or more than 1 per week but can vary from tenant to tenant)
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If the owner enters the property to show a prospective buyer during the first 2 months of a lease agreement then the tenant can terminate the agreement by giving 2 weeks notice. The tenant must give the property manager/owner the notice within 2 months and 2 weeks of the start of the tenancy.
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