About 6 months ago I made an offer on a large triplex and shortly after the owner went into bankruptcy. Lawyers representing the people she owed money to contacted us and asked if we were still interested in buying it through the bankruptcy court process. Fast forward to today... we have a signed purchase agreement from the judge and we were one day away from signing. The house was supposed to be completely vacant by this time. Unfortunately, the day before signing we found out that the son of the original owner is not leaving. He is staying down in the basement. According to the lawyers representing the debtor, the son has been asked to leave and not even his mom can convince him to leave. Naturally, we do not want to inherit this tenant (he is not paying rent, nor does he have any lease or rental agreement). We also can not go back and easily renegotiate price to reflect the possible long and/or destructive process of legally removing this person once we take possession. We have tenants ready to move in ASAP and we were hoping to be signed and done today. In an effort to speed up the process, my agent had a conversation and offered the guy some money to be out by Monday.

I know that this is a legal matter and that anything I read should be verified with a local attorney but I would love some advice, suggestions and examples from anyone who has experience related to this issue.

My questions are:

If we sign the paperwork, take possession of the house and he is living in the basement, do we need to treat him as a tenant and start the eviction process or can I treat him as a trespasser?

If we sign and take possession do we have legal right to sue for the expenses occurred by dealing with this person, since the purchase agreement states that the house with be unoccupied and free of possessions.

If he leaves on Monday but leaves behind possessions, would we be required to store those items for any length of time?

Stuck and Need Help

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