Many portions of Upstate New York and many desirable outdoor vacation hot spots - including the Tri-Lakes area where our main office is located - have seen an incredible surge in demand for real estate purchases of late. Many folks who live in larger cities have decided that the time was right to get out, either due to the COVID-19 pandemic or other pressures causing them to want to head for the mountains, the hills, the lakes and the green and open spaces. For some, the right property has been a multi-family property where they live in one unit and rent out other units. For others, buyers have purchased single-family homes.

Some sellers of real property have run into some recent changes in New York State law which have stopped them from the quick and easy sale of their homes that they thought might be able to be accomplished. For instance, pursuant to the New York Real Property Law, which was recently changed in 2019, if there are tenants in real property, the tenants are entitled to a certain amount of notice regardless of what the lease terms provide and regardless of whether a lease exists at all. Instead, the notice requirements are based on how long the tenants have been present in the property. If a person has been present in the property less than a year, they are entitled to at least 30 days’ notice that they need to vacate the property. If they have been in the property over a year, but less than two years, they are entitled to 60 days’ notice. If the tenants have been in the property two years or more, they are entitled to 90 days’ notice that they have to vacate the property.

As you can imagine, for many sellers of real property looking to cash in on the recent increase in demand in Upstate New York, this has caused issues when a tenant is present in a property where the new purchaser wants to inhabit the home as opposed to having that tenant continue to live there. In some instances, mortgage policies require that the purchaser live in the property.

A tip for those who have tenants in their real property and who seek to sell in the near future is to plan ahead and, once you have made the decision to sell, give your tenants notice of their need to vacate the property. While it is possible that the new purchasers (obviously not known at the time the sellers are listing the property) may want the tenants to stay, it is much easier to tell tenants that you are not enforcing the notice to vacate rather than trying to make up for lost  time.

The attorneys at Flink Maswick Law PLLC regularly work with clients who buy and sell real property in the Adirondacks, North County and the Capital District. If you know someone who needs assistance with a transaction, please don’t hesitate to contact us.