Buying property with renter

[Mark Shafer]

Buying a house with a current tenant leased until 2018. Do I take over the current lease or have them sign a new one. How does it work?

[Robert Santangelo]

Typically, in our area, the lease gets assigned to the buyer, so buyer and tenant are both bound by the existing lease.  Some leases terminate upon sale, so it's really how the lease is structured.  Your contract should require the seller to give buyer a copy of the lease(s) w/in a stipulated time (like 5 days following execution), and allow you a specified period of time to review them...during which you may terminate.

You may also want to look into getting the tenant to sign an affidavit which says that the lease (attached) is accurate and complete....that no other credits are due...confirms security and advance payments...etc. That's called an estoppel certificate, and it's common in commercial real estate, but not residential...but a very, very good idea.