Evicting Tenants with Delinquent Rent from Prior Owner

[Ramon Wilson]

I am considering buying a property in Los Angeles in which several of the tenants are seriously delinquent on the rent (6 to 9 months). I want to be able to evict the tenants based on the delinquency with the seller. What is the best way to accomplish this? Can the sellers assign the delinquent rent to me or does that delinquent rent get wiped out upon a sale of the property? If the sellers can assign the delinquent rent to me, how should that be structured (eg, do they write me a letter stating that the rent is delinquent or some other way)? Any help/ thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

[Brian R.]

I would not buy the property until unless the previous owner gets them out first.  

If you do buy it, plan on doing the evictions yourself, but you will not get any money from those tenants.  Figure out what it is going to cost you for the evictions, lost rent, etc. and try to get a reduction on the purchase price of the property.