Posted by Dr. Craig Whisler CA on April 03, 2002 at 20:05:31:
…the negotiation process to buy a property with such a holdover tenant (I believe the correct legal term is deadbeat), you should insist that the seller start the eviction process immediately, even while you are negotiating and even before you have agreed to buy it. No matter who buys the house the persona non payitti will need to be encouraged to find someone else to sponge off of as soon as possible. This could also prevent you from having problems in case the evictee has some valid legal defenses to eviction. For instance they could have have a poorly worded lease/option or land sale contract and a very liberal judge might decide that they have some eqititable ownership interest that might require a court foreclosure. That could take a year or two, even though it would be lots of fun. I always use this kind of problem as a bargaining point to wring further consessions from the seller. I remind the seller that tenants being evicted like this often do substantial damage which reduces property value. I try to arrange for my payments (in the case of seller financing) only to start when I get it rerented. Note clearly that I didn’t say my payments would begin when I get possession, because I may need a month or more to get the place fixed up to make it habitable. The sellers know they have a problem on their hands and it isn’t hard to get price or other term consessions from them.Also be absolutely sure there are no gaps in your fire/liability insurance. Fire and other problems are more frequent when you are evicting someone. Save a few hundred dollars here and a few hundred there and it will keep you in Big Macs all summer.
Regards, doc