OP, generally leases run with the property, so you are buying a home with a tenant. You better hope the landlord gave all proper notices to the tenant to terminate the lease and that the tenant does not have any right to a month to month lease. If you do not get the house empty as closing, you may inherit this tenant and the possible eviction process. Hopefully your contract has a clause that the house has to be delivered empty to close or else there is a risk you could be closing on a house with a tenant. If you’re upset about a tenant just being present at the inspection, I can’t imagine you handling an actual lease well. Did your realtor not explain all this to you?

Anonymous wrote:OP here: wow on these responses. Apparently I’m an AH but I still feel I have a right to be somewhat annoyed by it but nothing I can do. We respected the times we were given by them to not inconvenience them.

Regarding an above comment..their lease is up 12/1 and we said we’d be fine with them staying until the 8th as we close the 15th. Not sure the issue with that.

You do you, but in way would I said I would be fine with them staying until the 8th.

Agree with other that say delay closing until they are out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP are you saying you want the tenant out 7 days before you close? You...can't do that! Or did you mean the 8th of January, which is nice of you.

About the inspection: have some empathy and perspective. This is a person who probably didn't want to move, and now has to pay to move during the holidays. The least you can do as a person who plays a part on that is let a working parent continue to do their paid job while you do your little inspection. Also, the toddler is not going to get in your way. And if they do, you were in their way first, so...sigh.

Yeah, if I were the tenant, I wouldn't be moving until January 1. It's not reasonable to ask someone to move two weeks before Christmas. You can start eviction proceedings if you like, but if you do, I wouldn't be out until February 1.

Good luck, OP.

Of course it is reasonable to have someone move 2 weeks before Christmas. The lease is up 12/1. It's more than 2 months away. They know they need to leave.

If they didn't want to move at Christmas then they shouldn't have signed that lease for those terms.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. It's perfectly acceptable. They do not have to leave and they have legitimate reasons to be there. They aren't interfering with anything. You ATA.

OP here: I get they have a lease and can stay but it’s just odd to me and annoying and even my agent said she’d never once had a tenant stay during an inspection. I’m just worried about a toddler getting in the way during it.

We stayed for the inspection when we were in her shoes. We work from home and we had already been inconvenienced enough by the lying realtors and owners. We were still paying the full price of $5,000 a month to live there so we were done being inconvenienced.

Same here. Also, our landlord had told buyer we were moving out, but told us that buyers would be our landlords. We had a 2 year lease and no plans to move, and were annoyed with endless showings to people who clearly intended to move in.

OP, it's her home. Would you let strangers rattle around your home unsupervised? Let alone take PTO for it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The seller can tell them anything they want, it doesn’t give the seller any power to enforce it though. I’d be more worried about them actually leaving 12/1 unless you want to be a landlord

Op here: Why? We were told the seller let them know their lease won’t be renewed and that our closing (as long as inspection goes well) will be December 15th and that we’d like them out by the 8th the absolute latest. If their lease isn’t renewed, how would they just stay?

If you're in DC, this is not how it works. They have right of first refusal and it's a long process. Depends on the jurisdiction.

The tenant doesn't have the right of first refusal after the house closes. What are you taking about?

If this is DC, that's not how it works. The lease goes month to month if it's not renewed. Then if the owner wants to have it for personal use, they need to give a proper notice to vacate and if it's not followed, they can go to court and get an order to evict. OP, does your contract say the property will be delivered vacant? If so, you don't close if the tenant is still there. The current landlord may have to pay the tenant to move out sooner than they are obligated to, but that's between the tenant and her landlord. If your contract doesn't say this, I would get out of the contract, see if the seller will amend it, assume you're not moving in until March or April (and you'll need legal fees), or plan to pay about $10k in a cash-for-keys deal (also assume legal fees here but lower). And no joke about the lawyer because if you do this wrong and get sued for wrongful eviction, the damages can be significant. Get someone who knows DC landlord-tenant law.

I assume this is less tenant-friendly in VA but I don't know for sure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The seller can tell them anything they want, it doesn’t give the seller any power to enforce it though. I’d be more worried about them actually leaving 12/1 unless you want to be a landlord

Op here: Why? We were told the seller let them know their lease won’t be renewed and that our closing (as long as inspection goes well) will be December 15th and that we’d like them out by the 8th the absolute latest. If their lease isn’t renewed, how would they just stay?

If you're in DC, this is not how it works. They have right of first refusal and it's a long process. Depends on the jurisdiction.

The tenant doesn't have the right of first refusal after the house closes. What are you taking about?

But depending on jurisdiction they may have right of first refusal now, on this current sale.
It seems as if you have done no homework on landlord tenant laws. Are you certain the landlord gave them adequate notice of non-renewal? That notice period could vary depending on how many years they’ve been in the house. Have you read the lease?

How would they just stay?! By just … staying.

Anonymous wrote:OP are you saying you want the tenant out 7 days before you close? You...can't do that! Or did you mean the 8th of January, which is nice of you.

About the inspection: have some empathy and perspective. This is a person who probably didn't want to move, and now has to pay to move during the holidays. The least you can do as a person who plays a part on that is let a working parent continue to do their paid job while you do your little inspection. Also, the toddler is not going to get in your way. And if they do, you were in their way first, so...sigh.

Yeah, if I were the tenant, I wouldn't be moving until January 1. It's not reasonable to ask someone to move two weeks before Christmas. You can start eviction proceedings if you like, but if you do, I wouldn't be out until February 1.

Good luck, OP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here: wow on these responses. Apparently I’m an AH but I still feel I have a right to be somewhat annoyed by it but nothing I can do. We respected the times we were given by them to not inconvenience them.

Regarding an above comment..their lease is up 12/1 and we said we’d be fine with them staying until the 8th as we close the 15th. Not sure the issue with that.

Hopefully nothing. But if they don’t leave and you’re buying in DC…godspeed.

Yeah... I do actually sympathize with the tenants on the inspection issue, since it is their home, they are paying rent and you don't own it yet.

However... I would never buy a house I intended to live in with a tenant still occupying it. In fact, we had this situation happen to us: both the owner and the tenant said they intended to leave, the closing date arrived and the tenant had not vacated. we refused to close until the home was empty. This actually became quite a long process as the tenant figured out where to live, and we didn't own the home for another 3 months. But, at closing, the tenant was gone and the house was empty and we were able to open to door with our key and start moving in.

Buyer beware. I wouldn't close until it's empty.

Anonymous wrote:OP here: wow on these responses. Apparently I’m an AH but I still feel I have a right to be somewhat annoyed by it but nothing I can do. We respected the times we were given by them to not inconvenience them.

Regarding an above comment..their lease is up 12/1 and we said we’d be fine with them staying until the 8th as we close the 15th. Not sure the issue with that.

I feel for you OP. The comments on here are insane, the posters are insane, and no one knows what they are talking about. "Did you offer to pay the tenant to use their home?" Was that sarcasm? "You can't ask the tenant to leave before you close". The tenant should leave when the lease is up. Has nothing to do with OP's closing. WTF, seriously. Who are you people?

Anonymous wrote:OP here: wow on these responses. Apparently I’m an AH but I still feel I have a right to be somewhat annoyed by it but nothing I can do. We respected the times we were given by them to not inconvenience them.

Regarding an above comment..their lease is up 12/1 and we said we’d be fine with them staying until the 8th as we close the 15th. Not sure the issue with that.

Hopefully nothing. But if they don’t leave and you’re buying in DC…godspeed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The seller can tell them anything they want, it doesn’t give the seller any power to enforce it though. I’d be more worried about them actually leaving 12/1 unless you want to be a landlord

Op here: Why? We were told the seller let them know their lease won’t be renewed and that our closing (as long as inspection goes well) will be December 15th and that we’d like them out by the 8th the absolute latest. If their lease isn’t renewed, how would they just stay?

If you're in DC, this is not how it works. They have right of first refusal and it's a long process. Depends on the jurisdiction.

The tenant doesn't have the right of first refusal after the house closes. What are you taking about?

OP here: wow on these responses. Apparently I’m an AH but I still feel I have a right to be somewhat annoyed by it but nothing I can do. We respected the times we were given by them to not inconvenience them.

Regarding an above comment..their lease is up 12/1 and we said we’d be fine with them staying until the 8th as we close the 15th. Not sure the issue with that.

Did you even offer to pay her for use of her home during the inspection?

Anonymous wrote:OP are you saying you want the tenant out 7 days before you close? You...can't do that! Or did you mean the 8th of January, which is nice of you.

About the inspection: have some empathy and perspective. This is a person who probably didn't want to move, and now has to pay to move during the holidays. The least you can do as a person who plays a part on that is let a working parent continue to do their paid job while you do your little inspection. Also, the toddler is not going to get in your way. And if they do, you were in their way first, so...sigh.

They rent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. It's perfectly acceptable. They do not have to leave and they have legitimate reasons to be there. They aren't interfering with anything. You ATA.

OP here: I get they have a lease and can stay but it’s just odd to me and annoying and even my agent said she’d never once had a tenant stay during an inspection. I’m just worried about a toddler getting in the way during it.

I would be worried about the toddler too. Is there a nanny watching the kid? You said the mom works.