Advice With Lease Option
I own a house in florida and decided to do a lease option on the property 2 years ago due to slow housing market. i now live in virginia and just recently finally saw my property for the first time in 2 years. well the renters arent the cleanest and have let the property go somewhat. they have made their payments on time except once a few months ago. i also just found out he altered the home without my consent. the home is brick and he took out a window and knocked out some of the wall to install a french door in the bedroom. the work is only about 75% complete and he isnt making much progress. from what i have gathered from them he doesnt have the credit to purchase the home but mentioned he wanted to sell the house this spring mentioning something about a dual closing. see now that the market has jumped due to the hurricane housing shortage in florida he sees that the property is now worth more than the agreed price. we set up a long term lease option (3 years) so does the renter have the right to sell the property to pocket the equity above the agreed purchase price without even being able to qualify to purchase the house himself? any help would be greatly appreciated.
Basically if he can find a buyer to purchase the property for more than the the price you optioned him to purchase it at then he exercises his option to buy and sells and he makes money this way. Looks like he sees an opportunity to cash in.
but he cant qualify to buy it first
I would immediately begin an eviction. If ANY of my tenants, LO or otherwise EVER made a structural change to my home (and I believe it is my home until they pay for it) I would evict them, and hold them accountable for the costs to either finish the work or restore the proerty to the pre-"improvement" condition.
I'm expecting that you have a lease that addresses damaging the property. You should run to a local attorney.
Assisting him to profit in this instance is very unnecessary in my opinion