tenant has no lease

what is the dangers in buying a IP with a current tenant who has no lease but has been there 5 years?
apparently the last owner or pm didnt bother to renew it but the tenant is still paying rent.

 

Get a lease done when you buy it.

 

There's no such thing as no lease; only fixed or periodic.

Sounds like they're periodic. If you want them to go fixed when you buy it have them sign an agreement.

 

To reduce your risk you would ask for vacant possession however by the sounds of it, they are on a periodic lease as per @D.T. that is, the lease expired and they are holding over on the terms of the lease.

 

They are on an implied periodic lease agreement and the evidence is 1. They are paying rent and 2. They reside at the property.

The challenge is going to be working out paid to date and whether they are 2 weeks in advance or paying in arrears. Fun fun fun for your next pm to go through 5 years of badly kept records and bank statements.

However as far as the lease goes, there is one in place, an implied lesse but it still a lease and you are still protected by tenancy laws so you don’t really need to get vacant possession for the purpose of tenancy protection.

Vacant position would however make things cleaner but it also has the potential to cause vacancies