Tenants Renting a Home I bought (house, to live in, moving)

[CptnRn]

Congratulations, by buying a property that has existing tenants, you have become a landlord and are obligated to uphold the terms of the previous lease. When the previous tenants over stay a lease, it becomes a month to month tenancy.

In order to terminate that month to month lease, you need to give the tenant at least 30 days notice that the rental is ending and they need to be out before __X__ date (usually the first of the next month after 30 days).

Read more about your rights and obligations here: http://www.housing-rights.org/brochures.html

[Trainwreck20]

any signed leases, deposits, partial rents, etc should have been taken care of at closing.

That.

[CarnivalGal]

Originally Posted by THEDANBOT

But my contract says to vacate 30 days after closing but they don't know when I closed. Nor do they get back in touch to find out. So can it be EFFECTIVE May 15th even if it's delivered AFTER? Not my fault the guy is never home!

If they stay MTM come Jun 30th, they'll be my room mates!

It shouldn't matter whether he's home or not because every correspondence should be in writing.

[Spacepup]

Originally Posted by THEDANBOT

There is no security deposit.
There is no lease agreement/documents.
There is a lot of problems with the house - I bought it for $120,000 (3 bed 2 bath) in North Austin so it's a fixer for sure so can't really destroy crap!
They want to leave but don't know how, where and when.

I'll be contacting a lot of people soon about the next steps. (exhausted)

That doesn't matter, but triple check this!
That doesn't matter
You have no idea the amount of damage angry tenants can do. A "fixer upper" could change into a complete teardown of they are sufficiently vindictive and if you don't have insurance covering it as a rental you would be SOL.
That might be usable to your advantage.

Talk to a lawyer first (you should have done so before you even made an offer). You have to give the tenant a notice of tenancy termination on a month-to-month arrangement like what they had and they get at minimum 30 days from when they receive the notice, so before June 30th is possible if you move quick! Triple check that there is no security deposit because the last thing you want is for them to send you a certified letter 30 days after move-out demanding it back in full.

Now I say the last point might be usable to your advantage because there is nothing that says the tenant has to stay the 30 days if they don't want to. You might be able to just give them some cash (say $500-$1k) and have them move out instantly.

[THEDANBOT]

This is the developing story.

They signed a "notice terminating right of occupancy" letter for 6/15 last night at 10pm. So yes I'm the landlord but really I'm ending this whole rental agreement after 6/15.

On 6/1 I'll be collecting 15 days of rent at $450 - if they leave early, I'll just pro-rate them. Since it will be in cash - I'll give them a receipt, dated, with a signature. Anything else?

Right now it has insurance but not as a rental. Should I look into that in case they DO tear it apart? I don't see them doing that though because it's a mom, dad, and 2 little baby kids. I don't see that happening.

[Debsi]

If you don't have insurance as a rental property, then you really don't have any insurance. If you had a claim and they found out there were tenants, that would be grounds for cancellation.

[THEDANBOT]

Originally Posted by Debsi

If you don't have insurance as a rental property, then you really don't have any insurance. If you had a claim and they found out there were tenants, that would be grounds for cancellation.

I'm going to get in touch with home insurance and see what they say...or maybe I shouldn't for fear of voiding the policy?

[RoadWarrior12]

Originally Posted by THEDANBOT

I'm going to get in touch with home insurance and see what they say...or maybe I shouldn't for fear of voiding the policy?

It's void as it stands. Material misrepresentation of risk.

They can place a rider on the policy that will cover what you need it to.

[THEDANBOT]

Originally Posted by RoadWarrior12

It's void as it stands. Material misrepresentation of risk.

They can place a rider on the policy that will cover what you need it to.

Based on this article: Landlords need special property insurance it appears I need landlord insurance. Grrrrreat...

[riaelise]

Why would you even bother with a house that has tenants in it if you want to live in it yourself? Wait, I get it...it's cheap. That's understandable.