Sitting Tenants and No lease Agreements!

[Mike Alderton]

I am closing on my 1st Property Friday 3/18/22 and have already learned some hard lessons!   When making an offer on the property I was told by the seller that 2 units were long term and 1 was M2M.   Assuming that they had lease agreements I did not ask any other questions regarding their contract.   Now that we are going to the table tomorrow I ask to see the signed lease agreements in preparation for assuming responsibility of the agreements. I was told "I only have verbal agreements and everyone is M2M, I never saw a need for signed documents."    I understand that a verbal agreement is legal binding and I must still follow Ohio revised code BUT what is my 1st step of getting these tenants into a signed lease?   Must I present them with a lease agreement and wait 30 days for them to agree or disagree? Can I increase rent to market rent rates? Can I remove the tenants to make upgrades?  Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

3 Unit all 1bd / 1 ba   Each unit provides $450 / Mo

Tenants cover Utilities w. the exception of water / Sewer

Camden Ohio, Preble County

[Joe Splitrock]

Request an estoppel prior to closing. This is a document completed and signed by the tenant and landlord. It basically just states terms of agreement:

Name of occupants / address

Monthly rent amount is X

Term is month to month

Security deposit is X

I would refuse to close without this document. It is common for selling landlord to claim no deposit or no lease, only to find later the tenant says there was a deposit and produces a lease. Just type up a simple estoppel agreement based on the information the landlord provides and have the tenant/landlord sign it. Explain to the seller that this eliminates surprised later that can arise from verbal agreement. 

If they refuse to have the tenant sign something, then the seller still needs to sign something specifically attesting to deposit, term of tenancy and monthly rate. That way if there is a dispute later, the seller doesn't just claim "I never said that". People who do agreements verbally are either dishonest or disorganized. Either way, it is sloppy landholding and who knows what other shortcuts they took.