Tip of the Month - September 2016

Showing Property to Prospective Buyers

Source: Every Landlords’s Legal Guide
              By Martha Stewart & Attorneys Ralph  
               Warner & Janet Portman


You may show your property-whether apartments in a multiple-unit building, a rented single-family house or condominium unit-to potential buyers or mortgage companies.  Remember to give the required amount of notice to your tenant.  It’s also a good idea to tell the tenant the name and phone number of the realty company handling the property sale and the particular real estate agent or broker involved.

Problems usually occur when an overeager real estate salesperson shows up on the tenant’s doorstep without warning, or calls on very short notice and asks to be let in to show the place to a possible buyer.  In this situation, the tenant is within his/her right to say: “I’m busy right now-try again in a few days after we have set a time convenient for all of us”.  Naturally, this type of misunderstanding is not conductive to good landlord-tenant relations, not to mention a sale of the property.  Make sure the real estate salespeople you deal with understand the law and respect your tenants rights to advance notice.

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This web page was updated on 08/31/2016.