Selling duplex with tenant, cash for keys and not paying rent

[Anna Antipkina]

Hi everyone! My husband and I have been investing for the past few years and are currently selling our house hack duplex that will basically give us a huge capital boost in our ability to acquire more serious properties. We are very nervous because the house is in the wonderful state of NY which many of you may know is not landlord friendly. Our tenant's lease is good through end of October 2022, but the buyers want the house vacant for their own use so we offered a very sweet cash for keys agreement to our tenants which they signed, took the cash, and agreed to move out by June 28th. Our closing is scheduled for on or about June 30th 2022. They have stopped paying rent for May and June and are problem tenants in general. My main concern is that they will take our cash and not move out. If they don't move out, they will kill the deal we have under contract for purchase and set us back huge! Our purchase contract on the next property is contingent on the sale of this house. I have two questions, 1. If the tenants don't move out and we don't close, can we at least get our deposit back since the purchase contract is contingent on the sale of our duplex? 2. Can we sue the tenant for damages and get our cash for keys money back successfully in the state of NY?  The communities feedback and any other advise on this situation is highly appreciated. Thank you!

[Tim Johnson]

Hi Anna, wow.... I guess the first question would be.....why would you give them the cash without them giving you the keys? (That's sort of the point of that exercise......)  I can't speak for NY laws in regard to suing your tenants over the cash... but in terms of your earnest money deposit on your other offer...... it should all be VERY CLEARLY spelled out in the contract. No one here will be able to help you clear that up. In most cases, the obligation to follow through and close on the NEW deal is CONTINGENT on your selling the initial property. If you have not breached some other clause of the agreement you should be able to get your earnest money back.