My brother & I have lived here for about 2 years, our mom rents the other side of the duplex. It's 2 acres & in disrepair; the roof leaks, the doors all get stuck, I've had to replace every faucet since moving in, the floor boards are uneven & not installed correctly. The carpet is permanently stained with urine from the previous tenants (dogs & kids lol). We got rent really cheap because the previous tenants absolutely trashed the place & we cleaned it up ourselves.
She & her husband leave us alone most of the time. They let us do whatever, as long as we pay rent. I communicate & ask for permission for anything big (fencing the yard, expanding my chicken run, planting trees). The agreement states that they're supposed to handle outside maintenance, like the lawn, however they haven't. My mom mows the place herself. I repair anything that breaks unless I absolutely can't figure it out.
My brother has 9 dogs, as he's a dog trainer. Dogs are well kept & managed, people who visit are impressed we have dogs at all as there's not much evidence of them other than we fenced in the yard...they're kenneled upstairs if we're not present & very well behaved. I have a flock of bantam chickens, in a nice little coop & run. All of this is known & approved by our landlady! Our rent is very cheap for the area. We always pay the rent & our landlady has assured us that we're the best tenants she's ever had.
So...our landlady's husband texted my mom a few months ago & offered to sell it to her before he listed it. We panicked & texted the landlady, she said not to worry about it & they were just fighting..something about how he wants to buy her late dad's place & wants to sell this place in order to afford it, but she doesn't want to. Concerning, but whatever. Just a week ago, he showed up with an appraiser & said that he was using the place as collateral to get out a loan for more landscaping equipment. Our landlady told us it was nothing to worry about & it was as he said. We probably should have guessed this was bullshit, however, I guess my family is naive.
Couple days ago he showed up to mow for maybe the 2nd time since we've rented here, to clean it up, said the appraiser was coming to take pictures today. He went nuts mowing to clean it up I guess, weed wacked some of my gardens which broke my heart as the landlady always told me she loved the gardens & how much work I've put into them. Even the appraiser said how beautiful they are. Whatever though, the plants will mostly grow back.
Well, today, the "appraiser" showed up with a photographer to take pictures. The photographer let it slip that we'll be able to see the pictures on zillow once it's listed! Turns out the appraiser was in fact a realtor, & they were informed we knew. We were under the impression that this was just an appraisal. So he lied to our faces! Cool.
So we're trying not to panic but it's really hard. I don't want to be homeless again, I'm terrified of it. I do want to buy this place, I've put a lot into it - which I know was stupid of me since I was renting! I am well aware of this! It was just really hard to not anchor myself here. My chickens are birds that I've had for nearly a decade, that I kept at my dad's place while I was homeless & was thrilled to be able to move them here! Gardening is my passion & hobby.
Okay, so with all that, here are my immediate fears:
they will not renew my mom's lease in November, & our lease in February, or they will switch us to month to month
they're going to dramatically raise the rent to force us out
they're going to make my brother get rid of his dogs or make me get rid of my chickens, or both, to make us more desirable tenants
whoever buys the place will do these things
we're just gonna get kicked out
Financially, I can't afford to buy the place. I don't know how to scrape a down payment together, & I don't know what bank would possibly approve me until I get my credit score up. I will pay off my car in 2 years & when that happens, I should be able to save up. But right now? I'm fucked. With my full-time job & frequent overtime, I'm still only just scraping by. My brother is hopefully getting full-time pretty soon which should help....right now, I'm just trying to stop from spiraling.
I'm relatively aware of my rights & my landlady's rights...it is my understanding that there's not much I can do. The thought of choosing between being homeless again & giving up my birdies or my brother's doggies is bad enough, but what if someone just buys it & wants us out so they can move in? If I don't have a way to move the chicken coop, will they just get to keep it? Does it count as my property if I have no where to move it to when we're forced out? What about our furniture that we won't be able to move? Does it just become theirs? This is so bad & terrifying.
If anyone can point me in the right direction for first steps to take, (besides fixing my credit, I'm working on it), I'm all ears. Thank you for listening, at any rate.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1wgy4eb/watertown_ny_land_owners_are_selling_our_home_we/
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