Forum Archive

We have an accepted offer on a place that has tenants currently in it, and all of their leases are up in May 08. We are planning on taking over the space for 2 of the units (2 sets of tenants currently reside.)

However, I just spoke to a lawyer and he was pretty discouraging about this idea. He said that tenants don’t have to vacate and then we’d have to go to court to evict them and that would of course cost money and time. But does this mean that most people will NOT buy a property if there are current tenants in it, unless they plan on using it solely as an investment property (and not living there themselves when people vacate)? Seems strange to me given that most brownstones are occupied at time of sale, but I’d like to get some laypeoples opinions on this. (Maybe the lawyer is overzealous).

Secondly – and this is a bigger problem – one of the units that is currently occupied has residents that are illegally residing in it, b/c they are living in bedrooms in the cellar. The tenants I’m sure are unaware that this is illegal space but the owner I’m sure is fully aware of this.

Is there a way to protect ourselves against the liability associated with renting out illegally for the time between close and when their leases expire? Any thoughts would be appreciated. We are not planning on using the space illegally once the current tenants are out of it. But we cannot evict them of course b/c renters have the right to stay through the term of the lease.

Any advice would be much appreciated – thanks!