All Forum Posts by: Douglas Snook

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.

Section 8 may also have something to say. If they approve the "unit", you might be good to go. Also check with the city about any permits that were pulled for that address.

I would start the eviction process immediately. It will take a while to get a hearing date. Let her come in with the Raft Case number and show the court. As long as she has a RAFT number the court can't follow through with the eviction. But on the hearing day, the RAFT representative may be available to explain what is wrong with the applications. You may also be able to work a cash for keys deal for them to leave or otherwise establish a a move out date.

You want to start now as RAFT has dropped their pay out back to $7000 per tenant so if more is owed you may be out of luck.

One possible way is to buy the property and take over the mortgage payments. By that I mean, you make the payments. Of course it depends on the mortgage company. I just represented a seller where the buyer (who is going to repair and flip the property) agreed in writing to make the mortgage payments. Fortunately a local bank holds the mortgage so he just goes there in person and makes the monthly payments. This might be harder to do if the mortgage company is not local. If the seller is mailing in payments and has and old style coupon book... Maybe set up a new bank account that the payments are taken out of but you put the money in.

You would absolutely want something in writing with the seller that you can sue them if they stop making mortgage payments and the house heads to foreclosure. However, usually it takes a few months before you get there so there would be plenty of notice.

As for what you might lose if it goes to foreclosure, hard to say. Would depend on the state and what it sells for. In MA, in my situation, the balance on the loan was about a third of what the house would sell for. Was bought for $500,000 balance on loan was only $167,000. Pretty sure that if it was to foreclosure it would sell for at least that much. If it sells for more, you as the "new" owner should get anything above the banks balance. You want something in writing with the seller that you can go back after the seller if you do not recoup what you have into it.

Another big concern is what happens if the bank catches wind that the property has been transferred. Most mortgages have a due on sale/transfer clause. The bank can start foreclosure even if the payments are up to date. Of course you may be able to work something out to hold them off until you complete renovations and sell or you may have to look at financing to pay off the bank. In my situation, we put it in writing that if the bank call the loan, he has 30 days to refinance or has to pay the seller and additional $25,000.

Hope that has given you some ideas for thought

Be very careful in MASS. There are some regulations regarding the number of people and square footage of the unit to start with. Especially if you are in Boston, they do not want a large number of unrelated people renting a single unit. (like a large group of college kids)

As for water, there are strict laws/rules about that too. The landlord is almost always going to be responsible to pay that bill.

Hello all! looking for some information about how Rhode island handles evicting the former owner when you buy a foreclosed property. This would be a single family home either purchased at the foreclosure sale or from the bank after they have foreclosed. Looking for an idea of how long it might take to get possession and how long etc. If you know a RI attorney that can and would do this, even better. Thanks!

Check with the court about mediation. Not sure about your state, but in Mass it is a free service run through the court. You show up on the trial day, the mediation group gives a little speech about them being available, you can use it or not. If you can't work something out you go back to the court room and have the trial. If you work something out, it becomes a court judgment and order.

Again, that is in Mass. If it is free in your state and you can find her address, I would say at least try it once and see what happens. Then you know the system in your area if it happens again.