Taking over existing lease

[Alicia Katnik-Canney]

we are purchasing a property that has renters through this year. There is a lease in place but do we need to give a new lease to our tenants and have their signatures and ours, as the new owners? Thanks for the help.

[Jon Holdman]

You might want to do an estopple letter. That's just a letter that reiterates key lease terms like the rent, deposit, term and anything else you want to be sure about. Then, have the new tenants sign this before closing. What you're trying to avoid is a written lease that says rent is $1000 and then having the tenants say "the previous land lord agreed to $500 verbally, and that's all we're going to pay."