Verbal Lease in Ohio??

[Damien Anderson]

We close on a 4 unit building in Ohio is just a few days and right at the end here we are have strange situation. Some of the tenants are month to month, they are paying thier rent and we have proof of that. However, what we didn't realize is they do not have an actual month to month lease. The PM company will put notices on their door for things like rent raises and they have just paid. The problem is they refuse to sign anything. At any moment we can give them 30 days notice and if they do not vacant then we can evict them, however we would like an agreement from them of some sort stating their name, how many people live in their unit and how much they are paying in rent. Does anyone have any ideas as to how we should proceed? Is there anything we could be missing, i just dont understand why they don't want to sign something thats month to month. Would this be a deal breaker for anyone?

[Nathan Gesner]

I'm less amiable when tenants "refuse" anything. It's my property and I make the rules. If I want a written agreement and the tenant refuses, I won't ask a second time. They are given a written 30-day notice (or whatever your law requires) and I get rid of them.

Unless they are really good renters, you may want to consider getting rid of them anyway. They are probably paying below-market rent and have been "trained" poorly by the Seller, which means problems for you down the road. Starting fresh can be tough at first, but you'll probably be better off for it.