Evicting a Non Paying Tenant Post Purchase

[Ryan Kruse]

Long time listener, first time poster. Quick intro, I am a new RE Investor with only (1) LTR and (1) STR under my belt so far. These have happened all in the last year so trying to build up and keep the momentum going.

Our current STR is located in New Smyrna Beach Florida and does very well from a monthly cash flow perspective. It is a Florida beach town and we found a good value spot of large size townhome style condo that is fairly affordable. We have come across a neighbor looking to sell and is ok with a fair off market, As is price BUT it would have to require us to inherit his "currently un-evictable long term tenant" per his words. He said he has spent about $3K in legal fees and tried to evict but due to Covid restrictions has not been able to do so.

My question would be how hard or feasible is it to evict a tenant post closing on a property such as this one? How long would it take? Is anyone familiar with the current laws surrounding evicting tenants in Florida during this time? 

I know cash for keys could be done and in my day to day work I deal with a good amount of negotiation where I feel somewhat confident but would like to know my S*** hit the fan worst case scenario if the current tenant won't budge.