Seller Still Has the Tenant 4 Days Before Closing Date!
We are 4 days away from our closing date, and found out that the seller has done nothing to get their tenant out of the home. We dont know why, but the seller’s agent told us that we should evict the tenants. Obviously the eviction is the seller’s responsibility and we will not close until…
We are 4 days away from our closing date, and found out that the seller has done nothing to get their tenant out of the home. We dont know why, but the seller’s agent told us that we should evict the tenants. Obviously the eviction is the seller’s responsibility and we will not close until the home is vacant, as noted in our contract. Can someone help us on what we should mentally prepare for?
Update: we finally closed after 7 months of waiting for the tenants to vacate. At the end, the squatters left on their own. But the seller did take them to court 2 times and the tenants got 2 extensions of eviction notice ( 3 months, then 1 month) before they decided to leave.
Couple notes for those who find themselves in similar situation:
– it is seller’s responsibility to evict squatters if it’s says delivered vacant in contract.
– have a proactive lawyer ( we didn’t …) to keep you in the loop.
thanks for all your comments!
In case it wasnt clear:
1. Our contract states that the home be delivered vacant.
2. They are on month to month basis
3. They were informed 3 months ago they needed to leave.
4. We’ve put in 10% deposit for the downpayment, which is in the seller’s lawyer’s escrow.
5. Supposedly the eviction notice was delivered couple days ago.
We will let you know how this progresses. It is definitely an issue we did not foresee.
You can get lots of flies with a dead squirrel too.
CMU, I thought you were addressing me since you quoted me and called me crazy.
Guess it doesn’t have to make sense to you. Whatever I did worked out for me within 2 months, no court. Didn’t say I liked them, but was on decent terms. You get more flies with honey than vinegar kind of thing.
Seems like OP did include this info:
“we will not close until the home is vacant, as noted in our contract”
You don’t provide three very important facts:
1) does your contract say the premises are to be delivered vacant, and
2) does the tenant have a lease?
3) has the tenant been asked to leave, and/or does the tenant want to stay?
It is impossible to advise without know those two things.
IF your contract provides for a vacant house, then stick to it; it’s the seller’s problem to know about and deal with any and all issues including a lease with the tenant.
IF your contract DOES NOT provide for the premises to be delivered vacant then you have no leverage and are required to close.
IF the tenant has a lease with a termination date, then you are within your rights not to renew the lease at that time.
IF the tenant is a month to month tenant, and you want the apartment vacant, AND you didn’t negotiate a contract that provided for delivery of the premises vacant, then you could be in for a long process.
By the nature of your question, it is assumed that you do want the place vacant? Is this the part of the house you will live in, or an apartment that is going to be rented out? It is possible that keeping the tenant on is a good thing, but you weren’t clear about the configuration of the house.
If you are spending the money to buy a house, you have a right to have it vacant, but if you didn’t negotiate that into your contract, or simply believed that a verbal agreement would hold water, then you need to consult with your attorney as to what your options are at this point.
rh: sorry, still does not make sense. if they were trying to screw you by asking for money they were not entitled to, and you still like ’em, you’re pretty forgiving.
Anyway, it’s OP I was addressing mainly. I think it’s sad that so many people buy a house and chuck out the tenant as if that’s the right thing. And most posters seem to concur.
Casamia – that sucks!!!
Will you please follow-up with the forum and let us know how things turn out? As if buying a house is not stressful enough!!
I had an issue with our first closing and my attorney insisted that the seller put money in escrow for garbage. We’ll the garbage was not cleaned out by a certain date and the seller’s attorney disappeared. This after my attorney told me not to worry about the money in escrow because attorney’s don’t like to mess around with that. I think my lawyer was too lazy to sue for a small amount (~$4,000).
I don’t know exactly how this type of escrow arrangement works, but if you do decide to take the property with the tenants and put money in escrow, make sure that you have control over it. don’t the leave the money up to some sketchy attorney who could vanish. And make sure it’s enough to cover the loss of rental, legal fees, and possibly your rent, moving, and loss of time for renovating if applicable.
A similar situation happened to my colleague and he lost 6 months on his renovation schedule.