Joint Tenants - Husband and Wife are Separating - What to do?

[Collin Wilson]

I received a call this afternoon from one of our tenants.  She advised she wants her ex-husband (joint tenant on lease) out of the house.  She stated he does not pay for anything (lease or utilities) and supposedly the police were called to the house earlier today for some sort of domestic disturbance.  She claims an assault took place, but law enforcement did not pursue any charges and no protective order was issued.  She wants him off the lease and out of house.  I do believe that she is the one paying the rent and I would be fine with keeping just her on the lease...that being said what are my options to get him out of the house?  Obviously my first step is to ask him to sign a lease addendum removing him from the lease and all obligations...but what if he doesn't cooperate?  Thanks in advance for your time and insight.

[Sergey A. Petrov]

You are not a party to their domestic issues. If the husband requests to be removed and the wife wants to stay, she needs to be re-qualified followed by a new lease. Until then, they are both your tenants and need to be treated equally. I’d stay away from crossing the line of being the landlord to being their marriage counselor