Eviction for Owner Occupancy
I know that related questions have been asked here before, but I’m looking for thoughts on a particular element of it. Though I’m also planning to talk to a lawyer, as well. Assuming I’m looking to buy a new house, and there is a non-senior tenant in a rent-stabilized garden apartment, and I as the…
I know that related questions have been asked here before, but I’m looking for thoughts on a particular element of it. Though I’m also planning to talk to a lawyer, as well. Assuming I’m looking to buy a new house, and there is a non-senior tenant in a rent-stabilized garden apartment, and I as the new owner am looking to move into the Garden apartment, I know I have the right to evict that tenant, but I’m unsure as to the timeline of it.
Can I give notice to the tenant upon taking ownership of the building, or can it only be done within the window of the lease renewal?
I’m looking here:
http://www.housingnyc.com/html/resources/dhcr/dhcr10.html
“Under the Rent Stabilization Law, an owner may begin an eviction proceeding when the current lease expires, but only after the tenant is given written notice that the lease will not be renewed. This notice must be served at least 90 and not more than 150 days before the current lease term expires.”
So if the tenant signs a 1-year lease with the previous owner immediately prior to selling, do I, as the new owner, have to wait until 150 days prior to the end of that lease to serve notice?
Now, my hope is that this can be done amicably and that I could look to support the tenant with moving fees and such, but I’m really looking to understand the letter of the law as well.
Yeah, the 90-150 day notice applies no matter what.
You could try talking to the stabilized tenant and feeling him/her out in advance.
But I’d expect a fight, especially if the stabilized rent is far below market.
And since the seller obviously wasn’t able to easily remove the stabilized tenant, I’d assume it won’t be easy for you either.
Just be prepared for extended litigation as the worst case scenario.
Mixicon, sounds like you guys have no room for error financially. That’s a tricky place to be in, when trying to buy. Maybe it’s too soon for you? Buying a mostly unliveable house WITH a tenant because that’s all you can afford sounds to me like you’re pushing it. And you want to renovate? I don’t want to discourage you because I’m a big believer in stretching yourself, but this sounds like a potential financial disaster.
>>bkhabitant<<
We were thinking of a garden/parlor duplex and converting the upper 2 floors each into an apartment. Right now the garden is the only real, livable space, we’d like to be able to live in the building while refurbishing it.
Out of curiosity, even if we waited for the lease to end, wouldn’t we still really have to go through the eviction process (with a bad tenant) since a rent-stabilized unit essentially auto-renews the lease (I believe the only requirement is the tenant asking for renewal)?
On the flip-side, I’ll be honest, were we to leave the person in the unit, we couldn’t afford it, the rent is low enough that it does not contribute a significant enough amount to the mortgage based on the space it uses in the building. Were we to move in and keep the tenant, we could at best have 1 market-rate unit and realistically be unable to configure the building into a worthwhile apartment arrangement.
I’m sure there are renters on this board who hate landlords kicking people out of apartments, but there are also those of us struggling to go from renters to owners (and hopefully good landlords) and having to find more “complicated” purchases to make it happen.
See if you can negotiate a buy out with the tenant before, and as part of the purchase. The money spent will likely be less than the legal fees and many months it will take to evict a non cooperating tenant. It will also give you a sense of what the tenant will be like in litigation. If you follow the law you will probably win…eventually but it is a lot of grief. Housing court is somewhere between level 3 and 4 in Hell
Mixicon, are you planning to convert each level into a one family home? If not, would assume you could move into one of the higher floors and wait out the lease?
As has been commented on in other forum posts, an eviction process for a rent stabilized tenant is a long and tedious process and with good reason – ultimately, the tenant would need more than moving fees to be made whole as they will likely have to pay higher rent going forward upon moving.
I assume you’re focused on the garden because you want access to the backyard? If not, any reason, you need to move into the garden apartment? Just seems like you’re asking for a lot of headache when you could more easily move onto other floors.
seems pretty clear from what you quoted that if current owner signed a lease you have to honor it. It is a binding contract.
Walk away from the deal. Real estate is simple now. For bottom-feeding buyers that is.
***Bid half off peak comps***
good luck you are going to need it
We dealt with something similar during our closing. We demanded the house to be deliver vacant by closing (90days). The owner gave written notice to tenant (no lease) that they have to leave in 60 days and they agreed. The tenant immediately stops paying rent. When we went to get an update 1 month before closing.. the tenant were still there and had no plans on leaving. They gave some BS excuse to the owners and asked them for moving fees. The owners were pissed off and their lawyer told them they will handle it from this point to start eviction. In the end, the owners ended up paying to the tenants to leave. Reason is the tenants knew they have the upper hand.. if they did not give in to the money.. the buyers will walk away from the deal.
Don’t quote me since I’m not an expert but I think you are stuck with fulfilling that lease. Judges/Law always side with the tenants. Also eviction is not a fun and fast process.. it can drag.
Good Luck