Q: I'm thinking about selling my rental property within a year. How should this be worded in a subsequent lease.
The current lease is due to expire and I don't want to frighten the tenants into not renewing their lease. I work and reside outside of the state so I need tenants to supplement some of the mortgage expense in the meantime. Can I show the property to prospective buyers while the tenants are living there? Should the new lease be Month-to-month or annual? What if the buyer would like to purchase the house before the lease expires?
A:
The provisions should be included in the lease, such as:
1. If landlord decides to sell the premises, landlord may show the property at certain time of the day, etc.
When there is a lease in place, the new owner/buyer is required to accept the property subject to the terms of the existing lease.
The term (annual or month-to-month) of the lease will depend on the landlord and the tenant reaching an agreement on this subject.
A: All of these issues need to be addressed in your leases, because those leases will be enforced as written. The tenants have statutory rights to notice and they may refuse to depart and make you sue them to get possession. Delaying closing may cause you to lose the buyer or be subjected to paying his damages, such as moving, storage, and rental costs. I know of no form you can download to solve this, though many lawyers probably have collections of lease clause that might help. I have such clauses, but this isn’t an appropriate forum to publish my work. Alternatively, make your life easy, and clear the place out to prepare it for inspection and sale. Or, sell it as business property subject to the leases.
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