Thursday, August 12, 2010

Renting

I got home from work yesterday to find a For Sale sign in our front yard.
The house we've lived in for over two years is up for sale, and the landlord didn't even give us a heads up.

I looked up the listing online. It exaggerates (lies) about how much each of the two units in the house are renting for, claiming that we pay $45 more per month than we actually do, and listing the other unit as being $100 more per month than what it was advertised for a month ago, before new renters moved in. The selling price is probably fairly reasonable ($180K for a two-unit house in a fairly nice neighborhood, just a couple of miles from downtown). But I'm worried that someone's going to buy the house and either kick us out so they can live in our apartment, or (more likely) start charging us what the listing claims we're paying.

Any suggestions? Should I call the realtors and tell them the listing is wrong? Should I call the landlord out on the lie? Obviously, I may need to do some digging on landlord/tenant law.

Oh, and the listing also says this house is 97 years old. Wow.

3 comments:

Jenni said...

Honestly, I would call the realtor.

Also, what kind of contract do you have? Is it month-to-month, or is it more like a 12m renewable thing? Someone looking to buy an investment property would typically be thrilled to know that the tenants there have a bunch of months still under contract. If you are on a month-to-month, then you could get booted with 30days notice...perhaps if you plan to stay, you could ask your landlord about making a 12m contract. If you have that, then a new buyer would have to respect the dates (and I think also the rental amount) on that.

Katrina said...

Good heavens. Yeah, I would say call both. Isn't there something in the contract you signed that says they have to give you 30 days notice, or something? I'm glad you know where to look for tenant/landlord laws! That really stinks and I hope it works out in your favor soon!

Tim said...

Landlord says the realtor put up the sign without notifying him first, and that he'll make sure the buyer doesn't charge us more than what we're currently paying, at least for the next year.

So here's hoping that happens.

In any case, it's a rental property, and it will probably remain a rental property. I don't think we'll get kicked out any time soon, especially since our landlord will vouch for us being good tenants.

We'll see.