Help with a family quandary -- freeloading relatives/cottage might be sold

In My Humble Opinion
1

One of my relatives has been allowing a “semi-relative” (the daughter of a man she’s been living with for nearly five years) to live basically rent-free in a small cottage she owns for the past five years. It was supposed to be ‘temporary’, while the woman (Cathy for convenience) got back on her feet after a relationship breakup, but, yeah. Has never shown signs of happening. OTOH, Cathy has allowed several partners to move in with her over that time. No marriages involved, but Cathy has a current partner and a two year old son by one of the previous ones living with her.

Maria (my relative) hasn’t been thrilled with the whole situation. She has no parental feelings toward Cathy, she was in her mid-20s when Maria and HER long-term lover got together. They seemed to get along fine, just never felt the urge to make it all legal. The cottage was something she’d owned with her long dead husband, and didn’t much use after his death, and she sort of shrugged when her boyfriend pleaded that she let his daughter stay there a little while when her then boyfriend kicked her out.

Like I said, nearly five years ago. Maria inherited enough money from her husband that she could keep paying the taxes and such even without any rent to speak of, and to be fair Cathy and/or various partners have apparently been good at doing the basic maintenance stuff,

Out of the blue, Maria got an offer to buy the cottage. She’d never listed it for sale, and it’s just a small two-bedroom thing, but it is on a nice quiet pond and someone visiting the area was hunting for that kind of thing.

Maria wants very much to sell the cottage. Mostly as a ‘simplify my life’ type thing, but also having less expenses/more capital would be a good thing, because she does have increasing health problems, and it may become necessary.

But what to do about Cathy? She ‘refuses’ to even talk about moving out. Cathy obviously doesn’t want to lose the house she’s lived in “for free” for five years. She has a child to worry about. She’s had various casual jobs stretched over the years, but they’re ‘jobs’ and nothing like a career and often just part time. Cathy’s father doesn’t want his daughter ousted, but mostly doesn’t do anything to take charge or handle the situation – never has.

Can Cathy somehow block the sale? Claim some sort of ownership due to having lived there so long? I wonder if maybe Maria should just offer to pay Cathy some of the money? Like pay the first/last/security deposit money to get her into some other place?

Or a whole chunk more than that just be done with it?

(If it matters, Maria lives in Massachusetts, the cabin is in New Hampshire.)

2

Not realistically but Maria might have to initiate a formal eviction.

Maria isn’t asking Cathy, she’s notifying Cathy of the change of tenancy arrangement.

3

From my understanding, in the absence of a lease Cathy is a tenant-at-will and there is a legal procedure in place to evict her. Maria should certainly contact a NH lawyer to assist, every state has different procedures that have to be followed to the letter. Maria’s residence in MA thankfully doesn’t matter, I’m certain MA makes it more difficult/take longer to evict a tenant than NH does. Under no circumstances should Maria take any self-help steps, such as removing Cathy’s possessions or changing the locks.
If it was me, I’d research the eviction procedure & costs, make Cathy a cash offer to leave willingly that’s about the same as what the eviction would cost, and start the process immediately if she turns it down.

4

Maria should first talk to Cathy and see if it can be resolved to their mutual benefit. Maria shouldn’t have to give Cathy any money or help to move out, but that might make it go smoother. If Cathy isn’t agreeable, then Maria needs to talk to a NH real estate attorney about what the next steps will be. Maria needs to follow the law to the letter or else it can greatly complicate the situation.

In situations like this, it would be nice if the person thanked the owner for letting them live there rent-free and moved out without issue, but that’s rarely the case. Chances are, Cathy will act like the cottage is her personal property. Maria should be prepared for that.

5

Too late to edit: Cathy can only block the sale in the sense that the contract would require Maria to deliver the property vacant, so if a tenant is still present the buyer could & would void the sale.
So yeah, Maria should present this not as “I’d like you to move out”, but as “I’m selling the house so you need to leave by this date” with the eviction procedure ready to begin. Heck, it might be worth it to initiate proceedings even if she does agree to leave, if Maria is worried she’ll lie and stay anyway. Presumably if it drags on too long the buyer might find another property.

6

If squatting comes up, this isn’t it. Maria has been involved in landlord duties, has visited to inspect improvements and maintenance, and stayed in communication during the entire tenancy.

Edit: NH has a twenty year period for adverse possession.

7

IMO, Maria should enlist an attorney who is well versed in real estate law. The attorney can handle the usual sale details, and advise her on how to deal with Cathy. There are a lot of loose ends, but it’s going to come down to Cathy moving out willingly or being evicted. Maria will probably have to pay Cathy to move out willingly, and it may cost Maria a LOT. Or it’s possible that no sum that is low enough to Maria to stomach will be enough for Cathy to accept, which leads to eviction. Cathy’s dad is trying to avoid this mess, but he’s going to be twisted up in it a jillion ways if he continues to put his head in the sand.

Maria should also realize that getting rid of Cathy is not a requirement of the sale unless it’s one the buyer is imposing. Maria could sell the cottage with Cathy’s tenancy intact, and the buyer will kick her out. The buyer will most likely want to reduce the sale price for having to do the dirty work, but at least Maria won’t have to do it, and it’ll be much less messy for Maria. Of course, Cathy may well appeal to her dad about how Maria is doing her dirty, so Maria should be ready for that.

This is a good example of why it’s important to put shit in writing. Also an object lesson in dealing with family.

8

That’s a really strange take on things. Certainly the standard real estate contract for buying a house indicates it will be delivered vacant. If Maria wants to let Cathy stay and have the new owner evict her, that would have to be negotiated ahead of time clearly spelled out in the contract. I’d strongly suggest Maria not even attempt that - any rational buyer, having the seller say “I have a tenant who doesn’t want to leave, can she stay until you take possession and then you can deal with her?” would immediately walk away from the deal.

9

My wife was watching a series on Hulu called Squatters: Get the F*** out of my house, and I caught part of a couple episodes. While the show focused on extreme cases, it seems people can occupy someone’s property on pretty flimsy, yet legal, grounds. As a caution, one episode a squatter was given 24 hours to vacate the owner’s house, and proceeded to throw a huge party that night that destroyed the interior before leaving the next day. The OP reminded me of this.

As advised, it’s probably prudent to connect with a real estate attorney locally to learn how to do what’s needed the right and legal way, to avoid drama, even if Cathy appears agreeable to moving out.

10

Cathy’s dad should actually be the one who confronts Cathy about moving out. Maria shouldn’t have to do it.

11

Cathy’s dad isn’t reliable. If Maria wants Cathy out she’s going to have to drive the process herself. It will certainly be helpful to have Dad on her side, but she is likely to suffer delays if she expects him to take care of the process.

Evictions can be slow and costly. It would annoy me to have to pay Cathy to leave, but looking at the big pictured that may be the best answer.

12

Inherited tenants are common in real estate transactions. Not the norm, certainly, but not an outlier, either. The seller has a duty to inform the buyer of the tenant’s occupancy, but everything else is subject to negotiation. I was not suggesting that Maria keep it on the down low, but she could let the buyer know that because of a complicated relationship between Maria and Cathy, evicting Cathy would be accomplished much more directly by the buyer than by Maria. That will carry a price, of course, but Maria and Cathy are too far down that path for it not to have a price.

True, many buyers would walk. A buyer who wants the property, however, would negotiate. It’s going to cost Maria. How much it’ll cost is up to the buyer to decide.

13

Just from the relationship standpoint, it seems like if Dad doesn’t do it, all the relationships will be harmed. If Maria leads it, then Cathy will hate Maria, Dad will be torn trying to decide which relationship he wants to maintain, Maria will be upset at Dad for not telling his daughter that she has to leave. The most efficient way is for Maria to lead the eviction process, but that would probably end her relationship with Dad and Cathy. It’s hard to see Dad staying with Maria after she evicts his daughter. The relationships add another level of complication on top of the eviction situation.

14

This. Without a doubt. Dad is fucked.

15

My impression is that ship has sailed.

16

Sounds like Maria is supporting two flakes, Cathy and her largely useless Dad. Given that, this

seems to me sorta backwards. Although perhaps I don’t fully understand what @ricepad was meaning.

If Dad chooses to side with daughter, he fucks himself by losing his meal ticket named Maria. OTOH, if Dad chooses to side strongly enough with Maria, his life proceeds along just fine. The good news is he gets to decide. The bad news is he has to decide, and he does not sound to me like a guy good at deciding awkward problems.

IMO the ideal outcome is Maria is free of both freeloaders, having learned a lesson about inviting freeloaders into one’s life. Ideally a lesson learned at not too great a cost.

17

I’ve bought two houses that came with tenants. It’s not uncommon in some places.

Maria will have to make some difficult decisions. It sounds like she wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place if she weren’t allowing her partner to push her, and she will almost certainly damage her relationship by signalling the end of free rent for Cathy (or, probably, setting and holding any boundaries).

Does she want a conflict-free life or to sell her own property? I think decide on that first. If it’s time to end Cathy’s free ride, a quick conversation letting her know that a lawyer’s letter is coming, just so that everything is clear, would be a start.

If she doesn’t want Cathy or Cathy’s dad upset with her, resign herself to the status quo.

18

Were the tenants living there rent free? Did you then have to immediately move to evict the tenants?

19

Figure out some comparable home prices in the area to see how the offer compares to a standard market rate. If it’s just market rate, then there’s no need to rush the decision. She can take some time to work through this situation and then list it later for a similar price. But if the offer is really good, then it would be best to act urgently. Also to consider is if the buyer wants to act quickly and will take the house as-is. Even if the offer is market rate, having a quick, hassle-free sale will be well worth it.

If Cathy can’t support herself, Dad should step in to help financially. That may mean that he helps pay rent on an apartment. Cathy’s boyfriend can help as well. And Cathy should be eligible for child support. A cheap apartment shouldn’t break the bank with all the non-Maria financial help she should be able to lean on.

20

No: in one case, we did impose on the seller that they evict a tenant, who was in fact behind on the rent. We kept the tenant in the other unit (divided house).

In this case, both had leases which the owner had drafted himself, of dubious legality in this jurisdiction, as they violates several bylaws. We signed a new lease with the tenant who was staying.

Had there not been a lease, we would have started by creating one based on the terms we understood to be in play.

The other tenant left willingly in lieu of paying back rent.