Inheriting Tenants for the first time

[Shawn Stiteler]

Hello Bigger Pockets family,

So I’m closing on a duplex on the 15th this month (January) and this will be the first time that I will be inheriting tenants. I’ve turned to my bigger pockets books and gone through everything I can find on the subject and it has answered most of my questions. However I’m still a little lost on a few details.

1. The existing tenants are on a month to month lease (defaulted to M2M after the 1 year expired. Do I need to do a whole new lease on the 1st of February? Or does this previous lease hold?

2. What do I do about the security deposits? One tenant doesn’t even have one, but the other does. So I would assume the landlord would just cut me a check for the exact amount and I would then deposit it into a new account and then give the tenant the paper trail and new bank info. But I could not find anything about that in the books I have and wanted to be sure.

3. What happens with January’s rent. My assumption is that we would just prorate the rent by days in January and the landlord would cut a check for that amount at time of closing, but again didn’t want to assume.

If there is anything else o should know I would greatly appreciate it. I am getting the existing tenants and landlord to fill out the estoppel agreement so thanks Brandon Turner for all your wisdom you have put in to pages! And thanks in advance to this amazing community for all the help over the last few years!

-Shawn Stiteler