Inheriting tenants without a lease, security deposit and low rent

[Aaron Hirshberg]

I am buying a property to live in, which has an attached carriage house with 2 current tenants.

The previous landlord passed away, and there are no leases. The landlords daughter is selling the house, and I had her and the tenants fill out an estoppel agreement.

The estoppel revealed that both tenants are on HUD Section 8 Voucher program and are paying $200 under market rents.

One of the tenants says she had a security deposit, but it was 2 owners and 8 years ago, and nobody knows if the security deposit was passed on, or how much it was for.

The daughter (current landlord) does not have any paperwork receiving a transfer of security deposit, so I am not sure if I am entitled to demand she come up with it and transfer it to me?

Question #1

Should I demand a security deposit from the seller, renter, or neither? The renter has been there over 5 years and seem to keep the place in reasonably good shape and are nice to deal with.

Question #2

I am required to give 60 day notice before raising rent, so I am unsure if I should:

Option 1) Have them sign a lease on day 1. Then give 60 days notice to increase rent.

Option 2) Give them 60 days notice of rent increase - if they stay then have them sign a lease.

[Greg H.]

If they are on Section 8, there is a lease or was a lease at some point.  Additionally, there is an agreement signed by the previous owner or representative that the Section 8 provided would have a copy of

If you state requires a 60 day notice(most states are 30), then technically you need to wait 60 days to require a new lease and/or raise the rent.  The tenants could waive that time frame if they chose