I don't want to get caught up in some legal issue.

I'm not a BK attorney and this is not legal advice.

Lawn care/snow removal, pest management, Legal, accounting, other admin costs, to name a few.I am not trying to discourage you from pursuing this property. 

Renting out space in ones primary residence (and more) is legal provided that one adheres to the law that recently passed.

If this occurs, and the tenant wants to get their account in good standing, they must pay the late fee as well as any and all legal fees associated with the late payment.In our experience, this has significantly reduced late rent, and it gives the tenant the feel of a very rigid structure that will be less interested in pushing in the future.When we have bent on this in the past, it seemed to have created a never ending problem of late rent payment and our management company always begging for rent.If they don't actually want to pay the rent, then starting that eviction ASAP will save you a ton of money and rent loss.

But this is not what I was asking about.I just need to know what we can do to be able to go through with this deal withoit testing/fixing now, before sale and still be be protected legally - short of buying the house, testing, finding there is some lead somewhere beneath the many layers of paint this house must have collected since the 20's (it will be for sure), kicking the renter out to fix the problem by paying a lead cert contractor to strip off all the paint (large expense).We cannot do this now - or maybe not even later.The seller (current owner of this house) bought in 2014 without testing and simply disclosed "I don't know". 

Generally a legal lease transfers to the new owner and must be honored.

However, confirming with your assessor is the only way to determine what is legal and how it should be reported on the appraisal.

This may be a matter for legal counsel and financing source since you will have to determine how the funds are transferred and who will ultimately "own" the property & building(s). 

That gets you out of the city and into County tax range, which is way more reasonableBe careful about Towson, the rule ( also called Towson University rule) in Baltimore county is no more than two unrelated people in one house.You cannot really put 3 students in one house legally.