All Forum Posts by: Douglas Snook

Feel free to reach out directly to me if you like. Happy to talk and see if I can help. I am in Attleboro MA

How long have they been there? So you have a "Termination" agreement for the end of August? Not too much you can do until then. If they don't move by the end of August then you need to file an eviction action with the court.

You should be able to evict them asap if there is criminal activity at the unit. Have the police been called?

You indicated you spoke to an attorney. What else did that attorney tell you about evicting them? You can evict for non-payment of their share of the rent. You have to be sure to give Section 8 (or whatever program they are on) notice as well. You may want to proceed with terminating their tenancy instead. If you serve them notice of non-payment, they can always cure and that would end the eviction.

No matter which way you proceed, you need to start ASAP as it will take some time to get a mediation date and then an actual court date

I would not do it period. You have a no pet policy and they knew that when they moved in. End of story.

You live there with them. Do you want a dog barking all the time? Do you want to see dog mess when you go out to your yard?

If you are going to do, do a new lease and raise the rent (as you know you can't charge a pet fee etc) State in the addendum that only one dog is allowed and they are responsible for picking up after it, keep it from barking etc. If it bothers the other tenants (even if its just you) or they don't pick up after it, permission is REVOKED to have the dog. If they then don't get rid of it you can evict them for cause - a violation of the lease.

If you say NO, watch out that they don't come back and say now its a support doig and you have to allow it!

Good Luck! Keep the videos coming on youtube.

Be very cautious here! I believe issues can arise if you are deleading one unit with tenants in the other units. The deleader may need to do the whole building at once due to dust that could travel.

As for the current tenants, the ones on the lease you need to follow the lease terms. Most likely need to give them plenty of notice of non-renewal. If they don't lease then you will have to evict. If anyone raises the issue of lead paint you could be screwed.

If anyone gets wind that you are evicting to delead you could be screwed big time. Be very cautious.

Unless you are running a a multi unit apartment building, you don't open the account until you have the tenant (and their funds).  If you are running a multi unit building, you can have one account to hold all the tenants funds but you need to separate it out and keep track of the interest for each one. Not really worth it if you just have one or two units at this time.

You can go to the bank in advance and tell them what you are doing and get the forms to have them for each tenant. You should go in person to the bank - don't call. Tell them you are a landlord and need to open an account to hold the security deposit and/or last months rent.

Be sure to tell the tenant where the funds are and the account number or they can demand the money back!

You need to know what kind of tenancy they are under BEFORE you even purchase! You need any leases from the current owner, a transfer of any security deposits and last months rent, list of exactly who is in the unit etc etc.

You say you want to occupy one of the units so just give them a 30 day notice. What about the other tenant? Do you want to keep them? Do you want to renovate the unit? You may just want to get rid of both tenants.

If you want to keep one of them, at a higher rate, you need to terminate the current tenancy and offer them a new one at the higher rate. However, you may not just want to increase the rent. You may also want them to fill out an application to be sure they can afford the higher rate, you may also want to offer them a written lease with your terms (like no pets, no smoking etc) or other terms and conditions.

So I guess what you might want to do is concentrate on the unit you want, get that vacant and in the meantime just keep going with the other unit. Once you get your unit, you can then turn your attention on the other unit. 

Assume for the moment the are tenants at will. You need to send them notice a 30 day Notice. As an example if you served them this week, they would have until the end of February to get out. If they don't leave, you have to go to court.

Just my two cents.

Check with an attorney ASAP to see if it is even enforceable . If it is, all the things you mentioned - Notice of Interest etc are usually very technical if you want to "cloud the title" properly and not get bounce right out of court.