Property in escrow: Tenant won’t move stuff from storage

[Geeta Bhatia]

How would you handle this situation:

I am currently in escrow to buy a 4plex in California. One of the tenants has lived there for a very long time (16 years), so feels pretty entitled. Her rent is very low and has been raised only twice in the last 16years.

During our walk through, I noticed she has her washer and dryer hooked up in the storage area. She had that storage area locked up with her own locks. During the walk through, she said if they needed to be moved, she would move it.

According to her very old lease (original lease signed in 2004) it does not mention anything about her unit coming with the storage unit.

From what I have heard, this property was in a trust and the owners husband was managing it and was not very involved with the 4-plex, meaning he let this tenant pretty much run the place, some months even let tenant “get by without paying rent”, etc. since listing the property for sale husband is no longer around so it has been difficult for wife (owner) to come up with documents but has been able to provide everything I have asked for.

So, the problem is: I asked the landlord to have this tenant move her washer And dryer out of the storage area, she uses the washer dryer, it’s has a water heater/gas/electricity in the storage unit. I would be paying for water usage. I was planning on cleaning up the storage area and possibly renting the storage unit for extra cash or putting in my own coin washer and dryer.

When we did our final walk through yesterday, she still hasn’t moved it out, was notified about 3 weeks ago, she keeps saying she will

Move them, then states she has no where to put them “what is the new landlord going to do about no laundry service” etc She also at last min told my agent she was exposed to covid so we couldn’t do final walk through of her unit because she was  quarantining BUT right before we got their my agent saw her leaving in her car?!?

So my question is how would you handle this. I can tell she will be a difficult tenant. According to the tenant estropple, she is paying rent but may have more people living in the unit than what her lease states.

Would you take over the property and deal with it after closing or have the current owner deal with it. Can you evict tenant if she is using storage area that wasn’t stated in her lease? I don’t mind if she was renting that storage area but since she pays really low rent, I’m sure she won’t want to pay for storage area? But than I’m stuck with paying for her water bill for doing laundry.

Any advice would be helpful.