What are the laws in FLorida if I sell my house and have a renter in it? The lease expires at the end of Feb09

Question

My house is showing alot and think I'll get an offer soon. What are the laws when a renter is in place? My lease doesn't end until next Feb and my renter told my realtor that we could "buy him out" for a large fee that is ridiculous. Is there any termination provisions if my house sells? Thx.

Answer 1

Your tenant is right.  You can buy him out, but you can't force him out when you sell the house.  Generally, the new owner buys subject to the existing lease.

Answer 2

You need to abide by whatever rules are in the lease agreement. For instance, most leases include an option to amend the agreement by providing 30 days notice of any change. With such an option, you can give the tenant 30 days notice to vacate and they don't have any option. Obviously, the lease may include penalties for doing so, but it's impossible to say without seeing the lease.

Absent that option, you have no choice but to pay him off. If you sell the house, the new owner will inherit the lease and be in the same situation, so obviously your seller will want this taken care of before buying. It is your duty to disclose this information to potential buyers.

Answer 3

PRIOR contacts take PRIORITY. (Notice the similarity of the words?)  

The lease is valid and in effect.  Any contract you sign subsequent to the lease is secondary to the lease.  If someone buys the house,  the lease is still in effect and the new owners are bound to it as your assignees to it.  

What you need to do immediately is inform the tenant he will vacate no later than 28 FEB 09. That way notice has been served that the lease will not extend beyond that date. That prevents the contract from going into a month-by-month basis.  

Secondly,  you may not have to buy him out. If the new owners are willing to wait until the end of the lease before they start fixing it up or moving in,  there is no problem at all.   Notice will have been given,  they get the rent and the tenant gets to stay until the end.  

You might find out how large of a buy out the tenant wants.  If his presence is holding up a sale,  it may be worth while to buy him out.  No harm in asking how much.  

Under no circumstances should you try to drive the tenant out.   He could sue you and s***w up the sale.   Stick to your contract with him and make sure the potential buyers know he is in there.  

If he happens to want out early,  by all means let him.  But make sure it is noted for the record that HE wanted the early release from the lease.   It makes it harder for him to come back and make claims against you.

Answer 4

he negotiated a lease for an asset you have, now you want to negotiate for an asset he has - the rest of the lease, because the lease goes with the house and will be incumbent on a new owner.

if you want him out, negotiate a deal, and adjust your selling price accordingly.

or just wait and sell the house with him in it - if you re getting an offer, the buyer  already knows of the lease, right?

Answer 5

You might try talking to the tenant, and see if they wouldn't mind vacating the premises, but unfortunately for you - the lease agreement works both ways.

You could maybe offer to let them out of the last months rent, and give them back their deposit so they will have some cash to get relocated - but it will mostly be up to them whether they accept that or not.

In the meantime, until the house actually sells, you probably want to keep getting rent - so take that into account.

Good luck!!

Answer 6

Florida land lord tenant statutes have an undesirable clause in them and regardless the terms of the lease you can give the tenant a 30 day undesirable tenant notice and they have to either move or fight it in court, i owned rental an lease property in florida for 18 years and a judge will not deny an eviction when you declare a person as undesirable.~