How would you approach this purchase

[Andy Sabisch]

OK, this is a first for us.  Looking at a duplex . . . . the numbers look good, condition of one side looks good, exterior looks good . . . . . but . . . .

Walked into the other unit and not even in the kitchen we look in an open closet and see a large Tupperware tub filled with water and about two dozen bluegills.  The tenant was there for the walk through and said it was for when they go fishing for catfish.  OK, strange but we kept on walking into the apartment.  The dining room and living room were filled floor to ceiling with glass cages containing more than 20 large snakes, a few monitor lizards and something else that we could not identify.  There was an adult pitbull in a cage which the owner said was her "emotional support animal".  Thinking things could not get much worse, we went into the basement and found that there were a number of cages filled with mice and rats that they used to feed the snakes upstairs . . . and it smelled like urine from the rats / mice.

So here is the question.  The PCDS stated the tenants had a 1 year lease and had been there since January.  If we want to look into purchasing the property, can we put in the contract that the property needs to be turned over at closing vacant?  Is there any option to address this condition which we would not want to inherit on purchase.  Our insurance company does not accept pitbulls but we have the claimed "emotional support animal" issue to deal with.

Thanks for any insight or ideas on this situation which is pretty unique in my mind

[Jill F.]

Did you already get a copy of the problem tenant's lease with the current owner? If so, is that tenant in violation of that lease? (probably). If the tenant is in violation of the lease, make two offers

one offer with the unit empty where the current owner agrees to immediately start the notice to cure process to get the problem tenant in compliance with his lease (snakes and rodents, and possibly even "esa" pitbull ) or to get him out of the unit.

If the current owner is unwilling to get the problem tenant out, then If I liked the deal otherwise, I'd adjust the price to cover the cost of
getting the problem tenant out and cleaning up after him.If you have the tenant's full name go look at court records for all the munis in the area and see if the tenant already has evictions then you'll have a better idea of what your dealing with.