Buying a property with tenant with no lease

[Anna Hamann]

Hello guys, 

Working with an investor, who is putting an offer to buy a property that has 4 tenants renting out rooms with no lease, and 1 tenant with month to month lease and 30 days to vacate. This is in New York, anyone knows if the new owner able to break their arrangement and vacate the house?

[Will H.]

Leases stay with the property, and it looks like NY law is similar to our rules here in MA, so your client would have to give all of the tenants at least 30 days notice to vacate. If the end of the current lease term (usually the end of the month) if less than 30 days away, you usually need to bump the notice to the end of the next month (e.g. if you give notice on November 24th, so you'd have to give the tenants a December 31st end date). This includes the tenants without leases.

The tenants without leases are treated as tenants at will, and have the same basic protections as the tenant with a lease. Like MA, it appears that NY requires a 30 day notice to quit for tenants at will: http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/nycode/RPP/7/228

Also, be aware that, if NY is as friendly towards tenant as MA, your client is going to run into problems getting the tenants out in the winter if you wind up in housing court. I might have your client chat with an attorney about what (if anything) can be done to avoid that before moving forward.