Assuming a mortgage paperwork

[Sam Wilson]

Hey, guys,  

My wife and I are purchasing a house that we have been renting for the last 4 years.  The owners are separating and want to just get out of the deal, so we are getting the house on assumption of the current loan amount.  In our assumption paperwork, they require an, "equity statement signed by all parties confirming amount of equity or net proceeds to seller is not greater than $0."  It appears that the "$0" was the default value in the form and we can decide what the net cash to the homeowners will be.  We were planning on paying them $1500 each ($3000 total) so they can get some cash out of the deal.  

My questions are these: what does the equity statement look like and how does this factor into our contract price for the house?