Does an existing lease signed with old property owner binds new owner?

[Phil Cooper]

Agreed with neliusmit.

If you do ANYTHING "unlawful" etc., it counts against you if you end up in court - you MUST have squeaky clean hands... Else rulings can change and penalties applied.

....

[Beancounter]

Wynn is right, huur gaan voor koop applies and the tenants can insist on their agreement being honoured.

Although, when I bought a house with an existing lease, the previous owner arranged with the then tenants that they could stay one month for free if they agreed that their lease be terminated on the date I wanted to move in and they accepted. The seller forfeited one month's rent to get the sale of his property through and the tenants were understanding and accepted. It all depends on whether you inherited nice tenants or not.

Best is to always negotiate something like this before hand.

[neliusmit]

Nelius Smit

Thanks Phil, appreciate!!

[neliusmit]

I agree that it it the best to always negotiate, but however a lease contract will never supercedes the law!

[HR Solutions]

I agree that it it the best to always negotiate, but however a lease contract will never supercedes the law!

Not sure what you mean by that ........... A lease is a legal contract.

[neliusmit]

Interesting and informative how the law applies in foreign countries

[neliusmit]

What I mean by that is that if the contract states that the tenant shall have to vacate the property when it is sold, the tenant will have full occupation until his contract terminates and he cannot be forced to vacate the property for the new owner to move in.

[cyppokagain]

Thanks cyppokagain
I am aware that there are landlord and tenant friendly states which is one of the reasons why Memphis and Atlanta have been picked.

I wouldn't use that criteria. My personal preference is where I live. There are certain things in NYC like density and the amount you can charge that shift the balance via supply/demand towards the landlord. While it is certainly painful paying the most onerous taxes possible and overhead the amount of rent vs expenses that is possible here with the right approach is fairly high. California has the suppression of tax rates via prop 13.

There is also a limit in NYC ergo at $2500 a month the apartment becomes decontrolled. Which is almost all of the apartments in Manhattan and some in other parts of the city which are at market rents. (not those that were controlled those are still under heavy scrutiny ergo if you have a long term renter living there 30 years she still pays little and you can't raise it over a certain amount and you can't really 'get rid of' that tenant and get one paying market rent until she more or less goes up into the sky.)

http://www.nycrgb.org/html/guidelines/decontrol.html

commercial/retail is another story altogether though. reporting it to the city if you get good rents will make them raise your assessment that you make no money but you are 'obligated' to do so although theoretically you can report blank or not available i assume or simply state that you use for your own business. otherwise they go crazy and jack up assessments into stratosphere. you can't really do this if this is a big building over 10k square feet but still.
Then they come up with stuff like this...

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/business/commercial_rent_tax.shtml

so it becomes viable for some to buy their space etc...