lease purchase help

[kareengas]

I leased a home (on which I still have a substantial mortgage obligation) as a lease-purchase option to an individual (Person 1) who was going to further lease it to an actual tenant of his choosing (Person 2). The term of the lease was to be for up to 3 years.
My contract is solely with Person 1 and, that contract states in no way that any provisions are dependent upon Person 2 to fulfill their obligations to Person 1 or myself.
Person 2 has abandoned the property without paying Person 1 the Nov rent and the remainder of a lease purchase security deposit.
Person 1 is refusing to meet his obligations to me, using his problems with Person 2 as a reason/excuse.
Several clauses in my contract with Person 1 have been broken, i.e, the rent for Nov has not been paid, the remainder of the security deposit has not been paid, and there were animals at the home which was not allowed without written permission.
What are my options?
I lean mostly towards just voiding the contract as Person 1 has obviously proven himself to be of questionable integrity and resource.
However, since this was a lease purchase option signed in a contract by Person 1 for up to 3 years rent, is there a possibility that I can sue him for the remainder of that amount (approximately $20,000+)?

 

[jharris352]

No you can not sue for the remaining amount. Just like any other lease you can sue for damages. You need to evict him to regain possession of the property, sue for rent while you are evicting him, and sue for some reasonable amount of future rent while you attempt to re-lease the property and sue for damage to the property if it is not covered by the security deposit. Good luck.

 

[kareengas]

No you can not sue for the remaining amount. Just like any other lease you can sue for damages. You need to evict him to regain possession of the property, sue for rent while you are evicting him, and sue for some reasonable amount of future rent while you attempt to re-lease the property and sue for damage to the property if it is not covered by the security deposit. Good luck.

Thank you very much!
One more question, since he is not actually the tenant of the home, merely the holder of a lease-purchase contract to me, do I still need to "evict" him to regain possesion?
We have already sent a registered letter with no response.

 

[jharris352]

As long as he has a lease that gives him a right to the home and keys to that home you may have to evict him. You want to anyway because it gives you a platform to sue him for rent.