State Specific Question About: NEW YORK (NY)

I have a crazy scenario that I need advice on. Just bought a house from an older man. He had no running water because the well's electric was bad and needs to be replaced from the street. When I bought it I told him he could have until Spring to move out.

Ken in NY... NOT free. How should I feel about letting him live there with no water? Last night the front porches fell down. Would like to honor this and offered to make funds available for him to move. I'm trying to make him safe... CAN'T get water on for weeks. He has no legal heat in there. I could remedy taht with electric baseboards.

UPDATE Electric co pulled wire off of house! I know the man is on oxygen, so I sent email to offer 3mo rent & security if he leaves by 9/1. Hope this helps him.

Okay, so you bought a house from A. You told A he could continue living there through the summer, through the fall, through the winter, and until the spring, until April 1st.

You knew the well was broken, but you didn't realize it would be a lengthy project to get it fixed. You thought you'd get the water supply back to normal, and voila, but no, there are delays.

Now, the front porch collapsed, and is putting the electrical service in danger.

You get a $10/hr guy to dismantle the porch and cart it off to the dump.

You tell A, who was already living without well water, about the timeline that you expect to have the well repaired. Since the broken well was a preexisting condition, he chose to coexist with it before, so it shouldn't be an issue for him to coexist with for a few more weeks.

You bought a house as-is, which is perfectly fine. It sounds like you thought you could get a few months' rent out of it and delay a thorough renovation until you were on the other side of winter. But it looks like it had a lot more structural damage than you realized you were walking into. That's also fine-- but it's one of those things you have to roll with.

I've bought houses at tax sale, which were vacated maybe a month or two before it went on the courthouse steps, and I'm frequently aghast at the conditions people chose to live in-- and chose to allow their children to live in. The gas hasn't been on in five years. The City water hasn't been on in three. Or the sole source of electricity was an extension cord from a kindly neighbor. O_O

None of us here are about to plonk someone into a decrepit slum because that's all they can afford. But if they've sold you their decrepit little house (no offense intended at all--- I buy decrepit little houses all the time), and you've committed to allowing him eight more months to stay... then it's not as big a deal. Because it's his own status quo he's living in, if that makes sense? People are happy to live in their own mess, even if they'd go nuts over having to live in someone else's mess. :)

So, fix the well. It's okay if it takes a few weeks; just get the ball rolling. It's already been broken for longer than that. Cart off the porch debris to the dump, ASAP. It's a danger, not just to the electric. You might even take a bit of funds to spruce up the exterior (paint? siding?), or run any necessary roof repairs, or something, while the weather's still reliable. Install those electric baseboards before Columbus Day. Show him Activity, Communication, and Positive Change. But if it wasn't an emergency before, because he was obviously okay with it--- it shouldn't be an emergency now.

Ah! Oxygen is definitely a medical necessity.

VEE I have owned the property for 11days now. He put these disasters in place for the past 24 years. I am not a bad guy. He plays the system like a harmonica.

There's a big difference between the seller sitting quietly in a sad little shack and living his life, versus getting third parties involved in this sad-little-shack-that-belonged-to-him-two-weeks-ago-but-now-is-yours.

The porch is 20x40 and has been falling down for years. He put little car scissors jacks in to hold up a two story enclosed porch. Wouldn't let town in to inspect-ever.

Has three trailers on property from 1950s that he rented to people, they have no septic field, just a hole in the ground.

The Town came in and cut the power to drive them out.

The second I bought this, all his problems became mine, he states he is sueing me for neglect of the property.

His daughter is "disabled", but is now able to take care of Dad full time, because the Government will pay her to do it. She is no longer disabled, according to what SHE told me.

He told me he stopped working years ago and has collected disability for decades. This property was NOT condemned when he bought it, but no work was done. Electric cords were run through the tall grass to run the well for years; 220 well, 110 service.

Ah, someone who's talking about suing you is a minor detail that would have been useful in the first post! :P Not that he's likely to actually win if he actually spent the money to do so--- but I presume you have something in writing that shows he had requested to stay another 8 months, and you're allowing it at the rate of $x/month, and now you contrast that with his desire to sue you for neglect for the preexisting conditions he sold you. We document all our conversations and put them in a file and give the tenant a copy-- but we compose our letters so that a third party, who has no idea about what's going on, is able to follow the sequence of events.

I am really curious why you purchased this pproperty. I assume you bought it for a bargain price and after putting $xxx into it it will significantly increase in value.

sounds like from what you write, place should have been vacated to avoid any issues.

Indeed -- that's the kicker here that you have to realize. Code Enforcement when it comes to your OWN home that you LIVE in is completely different than code enforcement when you own a rental/investment properly with a tenant in it (which is what you have now regardless of how you might try to word it).

Code is going to go to you to complain about that porch, the 3 trailers, and probably for the fact that they place has no power (even though THEY cut it). They are allowed to cut power for non-payment or non-compliance -- YOU are not.

The guy likely has an argument to sue you. You aren't providing a habitable rental unit to him. It doesn't matter than much that it was already like that. Code won't care. A judge may or may not care.

- John...