How to define "Occupant"

Question

I seem to have a reoccurring problem with tenants in a basement apartment moving in, and their partner lives with them a majority of the time. How does one define "Occupant"? I use a month to month rental agreement, and am not looking to turn over the apartment frequently, so this maybe I should ignore this until it becomes an issue to me. I live in Virginia.

Number of Occupants. The demised premises shall not be occupied by more than 1 adults and 0 children ~~under the age of ????? years, without the written consent of Landlord~~.

Suggestions/ Comments welcome.

Marcia Maynard · Answer

Authorized Occupant or Unauthorized Occupant? Authorized Occupants are named in the rental agreement. Unauthorized Occupants are those who stay past the period allowed for Guests. If I suspect Unauthorized Occupants have moved in, I knock on the door and see who answers at a time when I think the Tenant is at work or elsewhere. It is not uncommon for the Unauthorized Occupant to out themselves if they don't know who I am. "Do you live here?" "Yes." "Oh, sorry I haven't met you... when did you move in?" "Two months ago." "Well my name is ....... what's yours?" It's amazing how many times the person tells me their name. I serve the Tenant a "Notice to Inspect" and while I'm there I look for signs... (receiving mail at the unit, extra water usage, extra vehicles, personal toiletries and clothing, using the property facilities on a regular basis, etc.) Sometimes a monetary deterrent works, sometimes it doesn't... but I've collected a bit of cash from rule breakers to offset the headache. For example: * Unauthorized occupant? $50 fee and move 'em out. (each time) * Unauthorized pet? $50 fee and remove the animal. (each time and per animal) * Smoking on the premises (inside or outside)? $50 fee (each time) * Disabling smoke or CO detectors? $50 fee (each time) If they don't pay up and abide by the rules from that point forward, then a ten-day notice to comply follows and I collect another $20 for serving the legal notice. It's all in the rental agreement upon move-in. No surprises.

Matt Devincenzo · Answer

Well occupant is the person on the lease, anyone else is a guest. So you just need to define their guests maximum allowable time they can have any single guest there. Something like: Any person not on the lease residing in the apartment for more than 10 days per month, or a total of more than 30 days in a 6 month period. Obviously run it by an attorney to make sure it's phrased properly but that is about what I would be looking at.

Elizabeth Colegrove · Answer

@John Woodriff I have a number of day limit in my lease where they go from being a "guest" to a "occupant". At the beginning of the lease, I have an authorize list of "occupants".

Colleen F. · Answer

I am curious about this from the visiting kids perspective. I had one prospective tenant who had his girlfriends children full time and his own children every weekend. This would have put us over maximum occupancy on the weekends but they he maintained the second set of kids would not be living there. He did not wind up applying but I am wondering if anyone has thoughts on that topic. I appreciated the guy being upfront but I am not sure it would have worked out. @John Woodriff Since it is month to month maybe you can just increase the rent.? or are you just not wanting the second tenat.

Sam Leon · Answer

visitor and occupant are difficult to differentiate because you are not there 24/7, a son visiting an aging mom every day and stay late on some days to care for her and occasionally crash on the couch is not an occupant but he might have her keys. Its best to have a talk with the tenant and set the expectations up front. If its up to me - but its not :( - I prefer no one except the ones on the lease and be notified and obtain authorization anytime anyone else is going to spend the night. That way I can be subjective but the lease says no. Personally I think it needs to be a singular event once happened a person change into an occupant. How about this? When a guest of Tenant is given a set of keys to the property or when a guest starts taking paper or electronic materials into the bathroom to read while he/she is on the crapper, whichever occurs sooner, he/she becomes an occupant.

Nicole A. · Answer

In Baltimore County, every time I ask legal advice about unauthorized occupants, I get the same answer: "It's a very difficult case for the landlord to prove there is an unauthorized occupant." I don't see why though if you are able to get pictures (assuming I'm even allowed to take pictures) and you have another witness willing to testify.

Bill Gulley · Answer

Good point Marcia as to occupant. An occupant is any party in occupancy or possession, may or may not be a tenant or lease named in any lease or rental agreement. As to limiting occupancy, this can get touchy as a tenant has rights of quiet enjoyment, the right of use and the definition of family may include unmarried or same sex members. If you unit falls under HUD (which it will unless you live in the home as well) occupancy is determined by bedrooms meeting size and volume requirements, ages and sex of children and adults. If you have a one bedroom, you could have two adults and an infant. Municipalities may have occupancy requirements. Here, it's no more than three unrelated parties in any one dwelling. If you have 4 bedrooms you're restricted to 3 unrelated persons. This keeps a unit from being a rooming house. You can make reasonable restrictions to use. But tenants have the right to have guests, even overnight guests. We had a limitation of 3 days in the housing authority as to guests staying, but this can be hard to enforce even for HUD housing as common sense needs to apply. If you live here and a friend from Utah comes to visit for a week, they may be in and out, skip a day of occupancy starting the clock again, going in for 6 hours is not occupying. The time of day is irrelevant. The type of unit will also have a bearing on the issue. Occupancy will be pretty much what you agree to, the meeting of the minds so to speak, reasonableness on both sides. Beware of "implied consent" in contracting and your actions and consequences of ignoring an issue. Specific consent is usually better, if there is no harm, then tell them the friend from Utah can stay for the week, 7 days and that you expect them to be leaving or perhaps you'll add them to the lease at an additional fee. :)

JERMAINE LUCAS · Answer

You do not want to ignore any issue with your property additionally you do not want an extra person living there, that extra person will create more wear and tear on your property, if we suspect we have a"tag-a-long tenant" we write our tenant a letter telling them to simply stop and that anyone living there need to be on the lease.

Jon K. · Answer

I doubt that you can limit it to 1 adult and 0 children. Fair housing. But, you an require all adults 18+ to be on your lease, or approved by your rental screening. They can have as many kids as they want-- subject to local ordinances. Some cities/areas let you limit max occupancy to a certain number of people per bedroom. If your area allows this, you could limit total occupancy per bedroom of your unit.