Unpaid Rent - Assignment of Back Owed Rent at Closing in CA

[Peter D'Auteuil]

I'm pondering a question regarding unpaid rent. In a particular deal, at least one tenant in a property is behind in rent and will be behind when the buyer takes ownership of the property. Who has claim to unpaid rent after the transfer? Once the sale closes, does the new owner have rights to that unpaid rent now or could the previous owner still have a claim to that back owed rent? 

As far as I know, the buyer would need the seller to assign back owed rent to them and release any interest in the original leases. 

Do any other agents or investors have experience with this particular issue? If the assignment is needed, does anyone know of a specific form to use? 

Any insight is appreciated. Cheers

[Nathan Gesner]

I've never found a good answer on this, so I created my own. I recently bought a storage facility with ten delinquent renters. Part of the contract was the assignment of debts at closing. They are now my debts and my responsibility to collect. It's about $5,000 (storage units and one residential rental) and I don't actually expect to collect any of it via payment. However, I'll eventually auction off any delinquent accounts and those funds could possibly go towards debts owed prior to my purchase. I think it's the fair thing to do; I bought the account and it was delinquent, therefore I own the risk and the reward.