My brother and I recently purchased 3 rental properties in Massachusetts from an old man who was desperate to dump them and move to Florida. These properties are on the same block. Two of them are right next to each other. The other is across the street. They were sold to us as as "8 families" (one 2-family, and the others 3 families each).
Recently, I started wondering about one of the 3-family houses, which has a tenant on the top floor (the attic)*. So, I called the town adjuster to confirm whether this house is a legal 2-family, or 3-family. The adjuster told me it's on their records as a 2-family.
So, I hung up and called the real estate agent who sold us the property. She told me "I don't know what to tell you", and assumed a defensive tone of voice. Finally, she claimed that she gave us a "certificate of occupancy". I told her that I'll check my papers and get back to her, if necessary.
I looked through all the papers that she gave us, as well as the ones that were mailed to us after the closing, but there was no certificate of occupancy, nor any mention of the number of units each property has.
So, now I'm suspecting that we may have been misled into thinking we purchased 8 legal units, when, in fact, there are only 7.
What should we do at this point?
Can a house be sold with an illegal tenant in an illegal apartment?
I'm asking you guys here for advice first before I go further with this and call the attorney who handled our paperwork. I don't want to sound like an uninformed ass.
I know that this should have been clarified before we purchased these properties, but I trusted that my brother knew what he was doing, as he has more real estate experience than I have.
* All 3 tenants have separate electric accounts in this property. I pay electric for the attic (illegal?) tenant and the second floor tenant. The first floor tenant pays his own electric. The second floor tenant also receives Section 8.