Does grand-aunt have sitting tenant's right to house ?Due to ill health my grand-aunt has recently vacated her home to move into a home for the elderly.
Unbeknownst to us, she lived for over 30 years as a sitting tenant in her home and never paid rent during that period. She does not know who her landlord is and her solicitor has been unable to trace the property's owner. Can you advise if she has any "sitting tenant's right" with regard to ownership of the property? Also, as the house is currently vacant, could anyone effectively move in and claim ownership?
What a strange situation! How did it happen that your grand-aunt never paid rent? Was there ever a landlord or did she simply move in and how did that come about?
Those are questions for another day, but to address the one you asked we ran your problem by Maynooth solicitor Declan Foley who points out that while you refer to your grand aunt as a "sitting tenant" it is unlikely that this is a letting under the rent control legislation, and even if it was, she does not appear to want to reside there, and her family would not benefit as they do not reside there.
He goes on to say that she may have acquired title by long possession (adverse possession) particularly given the fact that she did not pay any rent, and the owner is statute barred after 12 years of such possession.
She should consider taking that legal action now particularly given her age. Someone moving into the house now while vacant would have to be there for 12 years themselves to acquire ownership by adverse possession and any relation of the grandaunt moving in would not enhance her position wherein she has already required legal rights.
Are you her only grand nephew or niece, or does she have any other closer relatives? If so then there are a lot of you who know about this "ownerless" house, so there may be quite a scrum of people trying to get in the front door to take a chance and sit it out for 12 years.
It's eight months since we sold - but buyers can't sell their house
We agreed the sale of our house eight months ago and the buyer's offer was subject to the sale of their own home - which has not happened. We took our house off the market when we had the sale agreed at their request. They're nice people but nothing has happened and we are very frustrated. Can we legally force them to go through with the sale?
No. A sale agreed is a sort of gentleman's agreement - it doesn't legally commit either party and you were foolish to take the house off the market until you had it sold. Your estate agent should have advised you of this. As a last ditch effort, get your solicitor to give the buyers a deadline. Make the deadline one that suits you - not your nice buyers, you have after all been very patient already. If they don't meet the deadline and close, put your house back on the market.
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