Question:
Shalom uvracha!
If Rav Fleischman Shlit”a is able to answer these shailahs I’d be most appreciative.
One who sells his home leaves behind mezuzahs and unlike an outgoing tenant who can claim payment from the new tenant for mezuzahs he leaves behind, a new owner isn’t obligated to pay the outgoing owner for mezuzahs he leaves behind unless stipulated that they’re not included in the sale (Pischei Teshuva YD 191/8; CM 214/11).
Q: If the new owner is a ben Torah and the outgoing owner intends to switch out his mehuar mezuzahs for basic kosher ones, does he have an obligation or at least is it appropriate to inform the new owner so he knows what type of mezuzahs he’ll have in his new home? (Particularly if the outgoing owner is a ben Torah and the new owner likely assumes he’s moving into a home with quality mezuzahs.)
Better yet, should the outgoing owner offer to instead give the new owner the money for basic kosher mezuzahs so he can put it towards mezuzahs more to his liking? (Assuming of course that the switching can be done in a halachically appropriate manner.)
Q: If selling a home that has been rented to date and the mezuzahs are owned by the tenant, does the new owner have to pay the outgoing tenant for his mezuzahs even if he bought the house without being aware that the mezuzahs didn’t belong to the owner and assumed he wouldn’t be paying for them?
Q: When a new resident needs to pay the tenant for his mezuzahs he leaves behind, if the mezuzahs are mehudar must be pay him the value or only the value of basic kosher mezuzahs? Chovas Hadar says he only pays their value but Sefer Hamezuzah holds that he pays the value. What is the halacha lemaaseh?
Answer:
the question was sent to Rabbi Fleischman and this was the answer:
A tenant can’t force the owner to pay him either-he can ask but if the owner refuses he still can’t take the mezuzos-he can change them for basic kosher ones. It would be nice if the outgoing owner tells him of his intention to switch them and the second proposal sounds fine. For the second question-as we wrote he doesn’t have to pay. I don’t understand why the Chovas Hador says one can only ask the basic price-he doesn’t give a reason and I don’t know one
Yosef Fleischman
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