Terms of our offers
Ilan Nest makes two kinds of offer: to buy a house from its owner, and to let a home of ours to a household. These are the terms we work to for each, in the order things happen, with the point at which each one starts to bind written plainly. Nothing here takes away a right the law gives you.
In short
- Asking commits nobody
- Putting a house forward, putting your name down, a visit, a viewing and a written answer bind neither you nor us to anything.
- A sale binds at exchange
- A contract to sell land in England and Wales has to be in writing and signed by both sides. Until contracts are exchanged, either side can step back without giving a reason.
- A tenancy binds when signed
- A home is let only once its terms are in writing and agreed, and the checks the law asks for are done.
When you sell to us
Our answer comes after a visit, in writing
We never make an offer from a form or a photograph. After we have seen the house, our answer says whether we would like to buy it and why. If we would, the answer is our offer, and it is made subject to contract: it is a firm intention, not yet a binding promise.
Each side has its own solicitor
You instruct a solicitor or licensed conveyancer of your own choosing to act for you, and we instruct ours. We never act for you, recommend that you use ours, or suggest that you do not need one.
What our offer rests on
Our solicitor checks the title, the local searches and the papers that come with the house, and the house must stay as it was at the visit. If anything we learn changes our answer, we tell you in writing, with the reason, before contracts are exchanged — never after — and you decide again with no pressure from us.
If someone lives there
A sale does not end a tenancy. If the house is let, the tenancy carries on and we become the landlord on its existing terms. A visit is arranged through you, with the household, and with at least twenty-four hours’ notice to them in writing.
The day you choose
The completion day is agreed with you and written into the contract. Tell us your own dates — a move, a probate deadline, a tenancy of your own — and we work to them.
Stepping back
You can step back at any point before exchange. On this site, withdrawing a house deletes what you sent. After exchange, both sides are bound by the contract and the law that governs it.
The fourteen-day right to cancel under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 does not apply to the sale of land or to letting a home: regulation 6(1) leaves both outside them. The protection you have instead is that nothing binds you until exchange.
When you rent from us
A name on the list reserves nothing
When a home is ready, every household on the list whose needs fit it hears on the same day, with the same details. A viewing is offered to each one that asks.
Everything that matters, before the viewing
The street, the bedrooms, the rent and the day the home is ready are written down before anyone sees it. We do not invite or accept offers above the stated rent; the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 forbids bidding, and so do we.
The same door for every household
We do not refuse a household because it has children or because someone in it receives benefits. Where more than one household would like the same home, it goes to the one it fits best for its size, then to the one that has waited longest.
The checks the law asks for
Before a tenancy starts, the right to rent of every adult who will live there is checked, as the Immigration Act 2014 requires. If a deposit is taken, it is protected in a government-authorised scheme within thirty days, and the scheme’s details are given to you in writing.
The tenancy itself
An assured periodic tenancy, with a written statement of its terms. Before you move in you receive copies of the gas safety check, the electrical installation report and the energy performance certificate.
While you live there
We keep the structure, the outside and the installations for water, gas, electricity, heating and sanitation in repair, as section 11 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 requires, and the home fit to live in. A request to keep a pet is answered in writing within twenty-eight days and not refused without a good reason.
Ending it
You can end the tenancy by giving two months’ notice. We can end it only on a ground the law allows, with the notice the law sets.
What we will never do
- invent a deadline, or another buyer, to hurry you
- change our answer after contracts are exchanged
- pass your house to another buyer: we buy only for ourselves
- give your details to investors or anyone else
- ask for money to put a house forward or a name down
- let a home as rooms, or to more people than it suits
Hurrying someone with a pressure that is not real is an unfair commercial practice under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, and charging a household to join a list is a banned payment under the Tenant Fees Act 2019. We hold these lines because they are the right way to buy a home from a family and to let one to another, as well as because the law does.
The law underneath
These terms, and any contract or tenancy that comes from them, are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales deal with any dispute about them.
The written terms we use are meant to be fair and plain. Under Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, a term in a contract with a consumer that is unfair does not bind them, and where a written term could mean two things, the meaning more favourable to you is the one that counts.
If something goes wrong, If something goes wrong says how to tell us and where else to go. These terms were written on 13 November 2026.