new owner/old tenant

What is the name of your state? Hawaii

Aloha we just closed on a house and now need the know the steps needed to get the current tenant out of the house. This house is on Hawaiian Home Lands. This means that the lease on the land can only be held by someone with sufficient Hawaiian blood quantum. The seller of the house transferred this lease to my husband. The seller's ex (or soon to be ex)-wife, the current tenant, was neither on the lease for the land nor on the loan for the house that is on the land. So both the lease and the house were in the seller's name only. When we signed the contract for the house (July 18) the seller sent his ex-wife a "surrender of premises" via certified mail informing her that she needed to vacate by the 18th of August. This did not happen. Seller went to court today (2nd hearing) to try to have the tenant evicted. Since the lease has already been transeferred out of the seller's name and the closing documents on the sale have been signed, the judge dismissed the case. The judge basically stated that it is now our responsibility to get her out of the house. Since the tenant has no rental or lease agreement, do we still need to follow the landlord - tenant guidelines as far as the amount of time we give her to vacate the property? What steps should we take to get her out? Most of the notice to vacate letters that I have seen state some kind of default on the lease by the tenant (non-payment of rent, etc.). This is non-existant in this case since there was never any type of lease/rental agreement made between the current tenant and the former owner of the property. The current tenant did not make any kind of rental payments or utility payments on the property during the last 6 months. What points should we cover in our notice to the tenant? Does this tenant have rights to this property? Since she's already had a notice from the previous owner do we still need to send her one of our own?

We were planning to send out a letter tomorrow to give her a week to vacate. Is this reasonable or sufficient from a legal standpoint? Can we also ask to recover attorney fees should we need to file suit to get her evicted?

Any input would be appreciated.

. Since the tenant has no rental or lease agreement, do we still need to follow the landlord - tenant guidelines as far as the amount of time we give her to vacate the property?

Yes. and to the letter.

What steps should we take to get her out?

30-day notice to vacate.

Since she's already had a notice from the previous owner do we still need to send her one of our own?

Yes. You are the current owners.

If you had insisted on the seller taking care of this matter BEFORE you had purchased the home then you would have no problems. However, when you bought the house knowing there was an illegal tenant you bought the problems as well.

Now you have to follow the letter of the law.

[HomeGuru]

Writer, the problem that you and the Seller experienced are due to the fact that you both do not know the proper legal procedures and are trying to do everything on your own. As hexy stated, had you made it a condition that the lease be transferred to you only when the property was vacant of occupants, you would not be in this mess. Further, at the time of the lease transfer and when you became the owner of the property, you had a chance to file a motion in court as a third party Plaintiff, which would have given you standing and position stepping in for the first party Plaintiff. Since you did not do this, you must start all over again since the court dismissed the first case. You should have hired an attorney to help you. This is a complicated situation because the occupant, although the wife of the owner/leasee, has no title interest in the property. Therefore she is considered a holdover tenant. Read the Hawaii Residential L/T Code for the law on evicting a holdover tenant. The 30 days notice that hexy provided is incorrect.

[JETX]

"The 30 days notice that hexy provided is incorrect."
*** I agree. I guess he got confused by the amount of points Texas is going to win by.

Actually I got confused about how many points Arkansas is going to score on Texas while they pull the horns out of their butts

ARKANSAS 21 Texas 14 HALFTIME

Would this apply to our situation?


Q. How much notice must be given by the landlord or tenant to terminate a tenancy at the expiration of a lease? To increase rent after the expiration of the lease?
A. No notice is required in either case. A lease is a contract for a set period of time at a set rate. In order to continue the tenancy beyond the expiration of the lease, new terms would have to be negotiated. It is recommended that either the
landlord or tenant advise the other of their intention to continue or terminate the agreement after its expiration to avoid misunderstanding and unnecessary problems. This applies equally to changing the amount of rent to be paid, also. If the landlord wishes to terminate the tenancy, the tenant must vacate the unit or become a holdover tenant (see TERMINATION OF TENANCY: "Holdover").

Would the "lease" that the previous owner be considered expired since he gave her a 30 notice to surrender the premises? Could we then be taking over an expired lease and proceed from there?

This is what was stated in the section of Termination of Tenancy "Holdover"

Holdover - Section 71(c). If a tenant remains in the dwelling unit after the termination date without the landlord's consent, the tenant becomes a holdover.

A. As a holdover, the tenant may be liable to the landlord for a sum which is not more than twice the monthly rent under the previous agreement, calculated on a daily basis for each day the tenant remains in the unit.
B.The landlord may sue to evict the tenant any time during the first 60 days of the holdover. However, if the landlord does not sue to evict the tenant within the 60 days and there is no new rental agreement, a month-to-month tenancy at the rent stated in the previous agreement is created.

So do we just go straight to sueing to evict tenant?

[HomeGuru]

I suggest you contact your state Consumer Protection Office. I am a long ways from Hawaii and am unfamiliar with the Island laws.