Hello! First time buyers in the process of buying a house that is currently a HMO. We've been struggling to get straight answers out of most people involved in the process so far (quelle surprise).
The seller has said they need to give 30 days notice to their tenants and only want to give this when we exchange, with the contract completion being subject to vacant posession on completion. If there are still tenants in-situ, we don't complete, sounds straightforward enough. They are pushing to exchange this week so they can give notice before 1st of May.
However, we are aware that we need to insure the property from the date of exchange, which means we are insuring somewhere initially not as house, but as a HMO. There will be at least 4 people living in the property for this 30 day notice period. This feels marginally backward.
Should we be pushing for the property to be vacant before we exchange, and then exchange and complete at pretty much the same time? Is this unrealistic or unreasonable? We have to give 2 months notice to our own landlord from 1st of May, and don't want too much overlap with the house, but we also don't want to get stuck in a quagmire of not being able to complete on a property because someone has refused to leave, or the current 4 tenants trashing the place in the next 30 days.
Has anyone successfully exchanged on a flat with tenants in situ that had to be out before completion?
Edit: Thank you all so much for the help. Great to get that sanity check. We'll be informing our solicitors that we are not willing to exchange until the property is empty. Rather lose the house than be chained to one that potentially won't be empty for months.