Posted by Frank Chin on March 13, 2001 at 05:31:17:
I’m in a similar situation, though I’m selling the property. I have a lease with a current tenant which will be assigned to the new owner. I do not believe a lease can be cancelled by a sale of property unless its stated in the leaase.
I don’t have a legal form for it. But my attorney advises me that prior to closing, the current tenant will be notified by letter the assignment of the lease to the new landlord, the new landlord’s name, and starting date for making payments to the new landlord.
Believe you’ll have to provide similar notification.
I currently own a 2 unit bldg. Both units are occupied. One of my tenants has asked more than once if I was interested in selling. I am actually tired of landlording, but don’t want to miss out on the $300 cash flow that I am receiving. I think that offering this tenant to buy the bldg on a lease-option might be an ideal situation for both of us.
My question is this: How would this affect the lease that I have with my other tenant? Can I cancel my lease with him, and tell him that tenant #1 will be taking over management and to send future payments to him? I’m not sure how to handle this. I have Bill Bronchick’s L/O course, but it doesn’t deal with this specific issue.
You can assign your lease with the tenant to the new buyer, depending on waht your rental agreement says. You don’t need to terminate that rental agreement. Or, the new T/B can handle contacting the tenant.
I posted an idea relative to this situation earlier on the board. I don’t recall the exact post number, but it was in response to a post by Alan-Baltimore entitled “L/O a multi-unit property” or something like that.