Hello everyone! this is my first time here and also my first time getting into the real estate investing game. A very rocky start tbh. I thought I was getting an amazing deal but what I'm ending up with is; essentially locked into closing on house where everyone expected the current tenant to leave cooperatively however, he is now planning to stay indefinitely without paying rent until getting evicted. I'm unaware of the current lease agreement with him and the seller. When I close on the house will I end up having to pay for his utilities too while I wait for the eviction process to go through? Thank you for any help/ insight you can give!
What utilities is the current owner paying? Usually, in a single-family long-term rental situation, the tenant is paying for all of their own utilities. I would find this out now. I would also like to inquire about the current lease agreement. I imagine it is now a verbal lease.
Once you have this information, I would contact a real estate attorney (who handles evictions) and get their opinion on the situation. I would also request a seller credit if you truly were unaware that the tenant was not current on rent. The credit is not mandatory, but covering some of your legal expenses would be nice. Either way, have the attorney lined up to proceed with the eviction immediately upon closing on the property.
All of this advice is state-dependent. Eviction laws and rules can vary from state to state or city to city. This is why it is important to enlist the services of an attorney sooner rather than later and have a reserve fund to cover all expenses until you are able to take possession of the property.
We don't exactly know where you are located. In Florida, the landlord is not allowed to do malicious things like remove doors, turn off utilities, etc. In other words, you can file your eviction to get rid of the tenant, but you can't "abuse them" on their way out (very paraphrased).
So, with that said, if you followed that concept, it would depend on whether you were responsible for the electricity currently. If yes, I would think you would be expected to leave it on. If the tenant paid for utilities, then it would be up to them to continue to pay them.
We can usually have a tenant out within about a month where I'm at. You just want to get that process started as soon as possible. It usually starts with a notice being posted, so get that done asap to 'start the clock'.
Keep in mind you should receive their security deposit as a transfer from the previous landlord as a part of closing, so that will at least compensate you somewhat for the lost income if they haven't trashed the place and such.
One other set of questions would be - do you want them to leave? Were you planning on renting it out (where that tenant COULD remain?) or were you looking to move into it. My thought there is, if you reached out to the tenant maybe there might be another path?
One would think that the tenant would have been notified if they needed to move out. This seems like a break down between the seller and the tenant. You might be able to go back to the seller and say, "This isn't what was expected or you told me would happen, and it seems like I should be compensated for this as it had nothing to do with me."
He may tell you to 'pound sand'... but he may agree and offer you some compensation. Not sure what you have done to try to resolve the situation.
One thing I would do is to make sure your soon to be exiting tenant understands the impact of having an eviction on his record. As soon as that is filed, he will have a VERY hard time finding a new place to rent to him. Recent evictions translate to "We don't want you in our place" when you go apply somewhere else. I would probably approach your tenant with this information and say, "If that is the way you want to play it, so be it... but be aware you are really screwing yourself if you go that way" and explain that situation to him. Maybe give him 24 hours to decide before you file. He may have a change of heart. I can tell you the last person I evicted was shocked, and was having to live with friends because no one would rent to them... not even a mobile home... and they had a family of 4 with a dog. I more or less begged him to work with me to avoid having to file - but all he did was stall and bounce payments... "so be it!". In retrospect I know he wishes he would have handled the situation differently.
Thank you guys for the reply. I'm in Rochester NY so I'm expecting it to take quite awhile. I'm getting in touch with an eviction lawyer and am trying to get into contact with the current tenant but I'll have to essentially catch him at home as I don't have his phone number. Will keep you all updated!