Can someone other than the home owner be the landlord?

Question

So... I posted here about a year ago, but I don't expect anyone to remember that. I have been a live in landlord, renting two rooms in my house, for over a year.

My mother owns the house, technically, so she decided that she should hold the leases because she is the home owner. Is there a way that I could be "lessor" despite that my name isn't on the house? Would that hold any legal implications? Would it be easier or harder to deal with problem tenants if I were the lessor in the picture?

I have no official rental contract between me and my mother. Would I need one to lease out rooms? If someone took us to court, could they get lenience if it was done improperly?

Last year, I had a problem tenant and while I wanted to go iron fist and get rid of them, my mother... is my mother. I usually don't have problems. They understand that I'm in charge and they listen to me... but once they have a problem with ME... they defer to my mother... and she allows this to happen. I have realized that the only way for this rental process to go smoothly is for me to be the "lessor" so that they need to go through me and they cannot go over my head.

So, despite that I am not the home owner and am not even documented to be renting this house, can I do that? I believe that's called subletting? Would my area (which allows rentals only with a permit) allow this? I have no idea where to even start looking for all of these answers. I will appreciate whatever help anyone can offer and if you do not know the answers but know who I can call or where I can find the answers (for free) I would appreciate that, too.

Bill Gulley · Answer

Problem with renting rooms!

IMO, yes, a SPOA will take care of the issue

It can give you the power to terminate any lease for good cause including a tenant breaking the terms of the lease, Also gives you the power to chase rents, evict, file for judgments and collect, all without your mom being involved or aware of such matters.

Next, you lease can state that all communication is to be with only you, that any attempted communication with any party in title to the property violates that owner's privacy and desire not to be involved with any management duties.

Take you mom's name off and refer to her as the owner of record.

Put your name in the lease as the manager under that certain special power of attorney dated such and such date filed for record.

With this certain person, you mother needs to tell her only once not to call her anymore that you are now the manager and that you have full authority by her power of attorney.

Post a note on her door of the new terms, if she fails to comply her tenancy will be terminated.  You really can't change lease terms in mid stream, but you should be able to bluff this.

You'll most likely need to evict her anyway, don't renew her lease, or she may have plans to move anyway, so communicate to her that you would allow the lease to be terminated, that's what I'd do, get her out.

Evictions are different for roomers too living with an owner or owner's family, they can usually be terminated quickly especially when there are disputes that disrupt the quiet enjoyment of either party.

She can't act like a brat, like sisters fighting.....unless she is your sister,  which is what she is doing, there is a reason, you need to figure out what that is. She has recognized your authority before, so she does know, she's just playing games for some reason.

You just need to lay down the law.

All you need is the spoa and then need to modify the lease. Good luck...and screen your tenants better next time.

See your attorney for the power of attorney:)

Duncan Taylor · Answer

All she has to do is rent to you with a clause allowing you to sublet.

Jon K. · Answer

You need to tell the tenant that you will not tolerate doors being slammed there, and that if she's not happy there, she can live somewhere else. Tell her it's where you live and that this is a roommate situation with you as a master renter, and that your say is final. You make the rules in the house, and in order to continue living in your roommate situation, she needs to follow the house rules.

Mom needs to tell tenant simply "Ricks is in charge of your roommate situation. Call him... "

Give all the roommates a reminder that doors must be locked and not left open, mentioning safety. I put this rule in the lease. I also mention TV, stereo, etc. placement (which room) and noise in my lease.

When someone moves in, follow your lease to the letter from the start. If your house rules and lease say one fridge shelf and no smoking, enforce it from the start. If you say no pets, don't let tenant have a pet. Don't let tenants paint the bedrooms. Lay out the house rules from the start and make it clear that the lease must be followed if they wish to live there. Don't give mom's number. I would just make a "sublet lease" that you give your tenants.

If they ask for cabinet space, say, "I know it's crowded, but this is how it is divided up in this home. I pay the most here and I take care of all repairs and taxes, so I chose to give myself some extra benefits such as this. You're more than welcome to buy yourself a shelf to store more food in your bedroom if you wish."

With the door slamming, I would say calmly and firmly "Slamming doors and this sort of behavior is not how we live here. I understand you are unhappy here. Perhaps it's best if you move within 30 days. If you stay, I expect these things to happen: 1) your attitude needs to change... door slamming is not an appropriate way to deal with issues. You're getting a great value here and don't have to worry with repairs and so forth. I pay the most and choose to give myself some perks of the house, and I expect to be treated as you would want to be treated. I'm not going to tolerate door slamming and you not following house rules. 2) the doors should be locked. We don't want to risk our safety or belongings. and 3) This is where I live. All repairs, issues, and communications should be to me and me alone-- not my mother. This is a roommate situation between you and I, and I manage this house and I manage repairs. If you do not change your behavior, I do not feel comfortable with you continuing to live here, and I will have to ask you to live in no more than 30 days."

I will say that a bad tenant usually stays a bad tenant.

I'm assuming you will need to give these tenants notice and start over.

Have a strong lease and roommate agreement upfront, and let them know you mean business and that you have established house rules that they must follow.

I talk about what I expect some even when they first visit the home: "This is a very quiet, clean home. We are busy professionals and rarely see each other, but everyone is pleasant. We rarely have people over and do not throw parties. It's a very quiet community. There is no smoking on this property, and parking is outside if you have a car. It's fully furnished, so you'll just need your bedroom furniture. I'm looking for .......  in a housemate."

If you have wi-fi that you choose to share with them, I say:  "I do buy my own wi-fi at my own expense, and I share it with people so long as I never have to hear when wi-fi is down or any other issues about it. If my service goes down, people just have to wait for it to come back up. I also don't share it with people if they're downloading things they shouldn't be or hogging the network. Or, you're welcome to buy your own wi-fi connection or split it with others in the house... it's around $40 a month here per wi-fi connection."

Then when they come to sign the lease I show them around the house and point out "this is a closet by the front door that you can store your coat in if you wish. This is your laundry shelf, and your fridge shelf. This is where you can park right out there as there is not garage space for you. This is where our vacuums are; here's our pans and cookware.... you can use any of this shared cookware if you wish. We take turns cleaning the kitchen every week, and alternate taking out the trash." etc. etc.

Jon K. · Answer

You need better tenants.

What about "leasing" from your mother than "subletting" the property?  Look into taxes and insurance of the house.

Why do the tenants not respect you? Tell them upfront, even in a roommate agreement: "You are assigned 2 spots in the pantry, 1 shelf in the fridge, 1 in the freezer. That's how it is done here. You're welcome to keep your additional food in your bedroom, or you may choose to purchase yourself a mini fridge for your bedroom as well. No garage parking or storage space is available nor offered." Be firm upfront with the tenants.

I, too, have roommates. I tell them what we do and what we don't do upfront. The names on the title of the house should be irrelevant to a roommate discussion.

Mom can simply say "This is an issue between you and your roommates/landlord, call him at ...." That only needs to happen once.  Tell the tenant you manage the property, and any calls or inquiries should go to you and you only, and if they're unhappy living with you, they are welcome to live elsewhere.

My roommates know it's a "like it or leave it, follow the lease or leave" situation. My first roommates tried to whine about fridge space, garage space, etc. Now my lease is solid, my roommate agreement/lease discusses storage some, and they know I'm the bottom line and won't tolerate any b.s. They follow the lease and maintain a pleasant living situation and they can stay. Otherwise, they're out (per proper notice to terminate tenancy per my lease, etc.).

Mike Marko · Answer

I agree, you should go the "power of attorney" route.

Ricks D. · Answer

I mostly just want to be able to sign the leases instead of my mother... and I am getting mixed responses about whether or not that's possible... maybe I'm just easily confused?

The master lease idea is better than nothing but I'd still like it more if her name was just... not there at all.

With power of attourney, would I be able to accomplish that?

Plus, my mother does not have the drive nor time to bring people to small claims court if it does get to that point... which is another reason that I want to be lessor. If we get ripped off $500 of rent money, for instance, it comes out of my pocket, not my mother's, so she just doesn't chase them for it.

Ricks D. · Answer

I am just not getting the sort of respect I should from a specific tenant. They are fine with me and listen to me just fine and recognize me as an authority figure until they have a problem. Then, all of a sudden, they're ignoring me and emailing my mother. My mother, in turn, calls me and says that she doesn't want to be bothered and asks why I can't handle it myself.

This specific tenant will not speak to me anymore. She will only speak to my mother. If I try to discuss anything with her, she slams her door in my face or walks away from me (to her room to slam her door.) She keeps insisting that it's my mother's house and I have no right to tell her what to do. My mother doesn't live here and doesn't know what's going on at any given time nor does she really care all that much, seeing as I'm in charge, so this tenant insisting that unless my mother contacts her that she will not listen to things like "you need to lock the door" and "You are taking up all of the cabinet space when there are three people living here" is becoming a serious problem because my mother will not do that and doesn't have time or patience to email and call my/her tenants every time there's a small but obnoxious issue at the house. So, if they're only listening to my mother, they are not listening to anyone at all because my mother is silent.

It's a lot of small stuff but it's getting on my other tenant's nerves as well and NO ONE feels safe with the door being unlocked all of the time.

It's all just petty sillyness and this person needs to go, but it's not HER... it's teh fact that she's the second person to do this to me. I need to fix it so that there is no way to go "over my head" so that they can't keep trying to play rank on me. It's getting seriously irritating.

Erik Hitzelberger · Answer

I don't know about IL, but in KY you can be the Property Manager 1) with a POA, 2) if you are a regular employee of the owner, or 3) if the use of a rental unit is your primary compensation.

You should be able to clarify this with a quick call to your real estate attorney.

Bill Gulley · Answer

No agreement will really accomplish what you want as long as she is in title, she owns it, the lessor grants part of the ownership rights to a tenant under a lease agreement, no one other than an owner can do that. You can have that SPOA and it will specify what you can and can't do, it's specific to that property.

It allows you to lease it, you would be signing a lease like

Mom's name

By Your name POA dated xx/xx/xx

You could do a master lease agreement allowing you to sub-let. Then on your lease agreement you could say lessor under the master lease.

But actually, this is rather strange in your wanting to be known or seen as the lessor, where mom doesn't care and you want specific language.......why?

How can it make any difference, so long as you can lease it, toss people out and carry on the business of the landlord......why so specific, there's no benefit in the title of your position. Anything else going on?  :)

Can someone other than the home owner be the landlord?

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