As a tenant he is not 'entitled' to anything except his own moveable possessions. If he supplied the statuary, then it's his, but the plants are not. However, under the circumstances, and being a die-hard gardener myself, I would talk with him about the possibility of his carefully and neatly taking up the plants he put in and then refilling the holes left by them. There's no reason to assume he'll leave a mess, especially if you're on site to 'help' (could you manage to do that?). It's so hard to cultivate plants and then have to walk away - they do become your kids!

If you want all of the landscaping to stay as is, then you should stipulate that in the contract.

OTOH, I am leaving 9 years of hard work in my garden, and have already taken cuttings of my favorite plants. I will not be digging anything up though.

What's in the contract? If the contract stipulates that all shrubbery, plantings and trees remain, then they remain. My Mom is an avid gardener and when she retired and downsized she didn't want to leave all of her plantings. She negotiated with the buyer and had it stipulated in the contract which ones she could remove to take with her.

You must be joking.

I can understand him taking the statuary, but the shrubs & plants? c'mon.

If he didn't want to improve your place, he shouldn't have. That's HIS loss. He enjoyed the entire place. He was lucky you allowed him to alter your garden! Now the improvements stay, except for the statuary. PERIOD.

You could check the laws with your state, but common sense tells me that you get to keep the garden as is. Otherwise, how is he going to bring it back to its original being? Seems like a lot problems & your yard would be a mess.

I moved my hosta collection (about 60 mature plants) from my old house, and will be taking them again when I move, and it will be in the contract. I plan to leave some divisions there, and fill in the rest of the space with other plants/flowers. The holes will already be there, so it's just as easy to put a plant back in there as it is to refill with dirt. I would never leave my babies behind!

Thanks for all of your responses. I have a ratified contract and there is no stipulation that the plants belong to the tenant. I am meeting with the Seller's RE agent tomorrow and I will put my concerns in writing.

I have bought and sold a number of houses, but I have never experienced buying a house that has had a long term tenant He was under the impression that he was going to live there until he died (his words) and has been very upset about the sale of the house. He is a retired gentleman and I feel for him - he has been paying an extremely low rent and there really isn't anything nearby that he could afford. I am willing to have him stay on for the next six months or so (until I sell my house), but I have an uneasy feeling about the whole situation - he has a resentful manner that is unpleasant to deal with.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, and thanks again for the good advice.

I can tell you from experience you want that guy out before you close your deal.
Getting a renter out of a house can be a huge pain in the butt and it will cost you big dollars if you have to have him evicted.
Believe it or not the law favors the renter and not the landlord. Get it in writing that he will be out BEFORE you close. Make him someone else's problem to get out of there.

My non lawyer opinion is this: Unless stipulated otherwise in the contract or the listing, anything afixed to the ground or to a permanent structure is part of the property. Period. The statuary may even be considered part of the property, if it isn't just sitting on the ground.

I absolutely agree about getting the tenant out prior to closing. Insist on this in the contract, and also require a walk through on the morning of closing. Demand an afternoon closing, so that you have time for the walk through.

keep in mind his problem is with his landlord, NOT you. also, if the contract he has with teh landlord does not say that the plants stay, tehn the landlord cannot promise you anything.

i agree, you want him out before the house becomes yours. yes, i feel sorry for him since his landlord is doing this to him, but it ain't your problem. you let him stay and it will be.

thanks again, everyone.

I am really up in the air about the tenant. My concerns are that he has lived there so long and he has so much stuff. He is a part time antique dealer and the place is crammed with furniture - he has let me know that they are for sale if Im interested. I'm not!!! Also, he owns the washer and dryer and is willing to sell it to me (no thanks)
I just have this bad feeling that I am somehow going to be stuck with all of this stuff. This is an estate sale and to further complicate things, there are pieces of furniture that belong to the estate. I just want everything out.
I will put all of this in writing with the RE tomorrow.

Diana

Diana,
I recently moved, when we put the house up for sale we removed all of the plants we were taking (about 500 pots). Now, with this situation, it's very possible he has no clue and did not think to take the plants out of the ground. I feel it would be in everyone's best interests to sit down with him and work it out now. You could decide to bargain with him, if there are plants that he can't replace (they might not produce them any more which was one reason i took stuff as well as hubby & I brought some back from other states) that he is to go around with that orange or hot pink plastic ribbon and "mark" the plants. You then come to see what he is taking, then take it from there. You can either tell the owner to replace the plants with something, fill holes or what ever.

I feel bad for the guy, I feel bad for you. Hopefully you can get this worked out so that he doesn't damage anything. I'm not nuts about him living there after closing unless you have some sort of security deposit or money left in escrow just for this.

I strongly disagree with roselvr. I see this as a no-win for you. Sure, it's a bad situation - don't make yourself part of it by letting him stay after you purchase the property.

Get everything in writing - what stays and what doesn't (him and his antiques, washer/dryer, plants, etc.) and make sure everything you want gone is gone before you assume the property.

If you don't, you're in for lots of unpleasantness and you'll come out as the bad guy.

With the additional information you provided, regardless of whether you decide to let him take some plants, I would not let this tenant stay. You mentioned that "you feel for him", which is understandable, but don't let compassion get you into a potentially ugly situation. Put everything in writing, as mentioned, and let the owner and agents follow through. I also wouldn't talk to the tenant anymore, remove yourself from the situation. When is the final walk through? The tenant and all of his belongings should be out.

Unless it's specifically spelled out in your contract...legally, you are not required to allow him to take a single plant. Plants are considered to be appurtent to the real estate & transfer with title.

Free-standing planters, statuary, etc. are personal property & he may take those.

/tricia

I think I can see that if a tenant planted a garden that he thinks he owns those plants, not the house owner. So that if he were "evicted" he thinks he has the right to take "his" plants.
I'm scratching my head on this one, but I seem to recall a friend of mine fixing up a house and garden, and before he moved (having sold the house), he invited all his friends & neighbors to dig up whatever plants they wanted. Not saying he was right or wrong, but people have weird ideas about things not specifically addressed in the contract.

I'm glad you've decided to make sure everything is addressed in the contract. In addition I would make sure you have a walk-through before closing to make sure everything in the contract has been satisfied. I know somebody else mentioned this also. You may want to include that part in the contract too depending on your state and what requirements are there.

I can see it both ways. As a home owner and seller, I believe those plants to be mine. I have a very large collection of hosta and some other unique plants that absolutely would go with me when I move. These plants would be removed prior to showing and replaced with other plants. As a buyer, however, if the landscaping is what attracted me to begin with, I would want it stipulated that it went with the house. That's why I would remove all wanted plants prior to showing.
This poor old guy basically got hammered by his landlord. He's having what he thought was his security taken away from him with little warning. I don't know what the guy has for plants, but if taking them with him after he's forced out makes it easier for him then perhaps it would be a kind thing for the landlord to let the guy take them and then replace them for you or have him deduct the cost of them from your price and then you can replace them. What's goin on here is not your fault nor the tenants. This is on the landlord.

By all means however, everyone is right in saying he should vacate before closing.

Teresa

While I can feel sorry for the tenant for all the time, effort and money he put into the garden, the fact remains that he is a renter. He knows, and has known all along, that he doesn't own the place. Any improvements he puts in belong to the landlord. I rent. Right now, I'm putting up with an incredibly ugly, rusty radiator in my bathroom because the landlord sees no point in painting it, I'm not sure I want to go to the trouble of sanding and painting it and to buy a radiator cover would be at least $250 and I would have to leave it behind. That's the breaks when you rent.

With all the information you have given, it would be best to make sure that the tenant is out of the house and so is all the furniture and other stuff before you close. The problem of getting the tenant out and of clearing out old furniture should be the seller's, not the buyer's.

Honestly, the garden seems like the least of your worries right now. You can be "nice" to the tenant and allow him to remove some plants. You can say nothing and accept the fact that he may take some plants and just deal with it after you move in. You can specify that all plantings remain, but the tenant may remove some out of spite.