Steps to Onboarding Inherited Tenant

[Sara K.]

My husband and I are closing on our first rental property this afternoon. We are inheriting a tenant, who is a clean freak, pays on time, wants to stay, and has zero maintenance requests. We did the walk-through yesterday and everything looked good. His year lease expires 11/30/17.

I am trying to make sure I have covered all of the bases for inheriting a tenant/having a new tenant in Florida.

I am sending a welcome letter today detailing that we are the new landlords, we will honor and follow the previous lease, we have been given the security deposit, etc. This letter will also give instructions to the tenant on how to set up a Cozy.co account to pay rent. 

Beyond that, I know I need to put his security deposit in a separate non-interest bearing bank account (will be done by this weekend), and notify the tenant within 30 days of the location, account number, etc. 

I would imagine I should contact the utility companies to let them know ownership has changed. Am I missing anything else?

Do I need to have a new lease drafted up, or a lease addendum stating we are new landlords, or can I piggy-back off of the previous lease for the duration of his tenancy? I don't want to sign another yearly lease, I'd rather let it go month-to-month, which is already written in the previous lease.

Thank you for your help!

[Thomas S.]

With your tenant $ 200 below market you should be able to push the rent more than $20. Having a tenant that has indicated they want to stay they have sent you a message that they know they are below market and will expect a rent increase. As for your market rent that is based on comparable units to yours not a fully updated one in your area. If yours is out dated market will not be $975.

My guess is that you will be able to push the rent $100 and he will gladly stay. 

If they do not stay a quick update, bringing it to market, with a months lost rent will more than be worth the cost of a tenant change over. 

Don't forget when you do a update you collect the higher rent for as long as you hold the property. A $5000 investment with a $2400 return annually can't be scoffed at.