One Tenant on App and Lease - Neighbor says 3 are moving in.

[Peter Lambert]

Scenario -

Lease Application for one tenant (checked by our realtor) - great employment history, rental history and credit score. No criminal background. Looked great on paper, and is why we went with this tenant. Signed a Lease beginning Jan 1, 2014, paid security deposit and first month's rent.

Due to working out of town, tenant told me he could not move in for another week. Neighbor contacts me today and tells me he met "one of the new tenants". Apparently three of them are planning on living there.

Still have yet to get ahold of the tenant. Tenant does not have keys yet, house has is still vacant, tenant paid security deposit and one month's rent.

How should I proceed? Run checks on the other two? If they are ok, modify the the lease? I would prefer not to have three guys living in this house. If I went that route I would likely want to increase the rent.

Thoughts?

[Patrick Connell]

@Peter Lambert a few things to sort out.

First, did your rental criteria state that anyone over the age of 18 must submit an application and be a party to the lease? If not, you have no issue with them for that. Second, does the lease you both signed stipulate how long visitors may or may not stay, or that tenant may not sublease;if your Realtor used the standard TAR Lease then it should?

Additionally, you have a signed lease already in effect, security deposit, and first months rent. I would NOT withhold keys from the tenant when he gets back because you run the risk of getting yourself is trouble for illegally keeping him out of a residence he is legally entitled to be in. If you want to start the process for eviction now for breach of the lease then go ahead and do that but you don't really have anything to base that on other then something you heard. Again, he's paid up and you guys have a contract, you don't want to be the one to breach that contract.

Also, and most important, I would be VERY careful about increasing the rent simply because there are three men living in your unit. In my opinion, that borders very heavily on violating fair housing laws because sex is a protected class. That's no different than increasing the rent on a single mother because you found out she adopted 6 kids a week after move-in.

Best thing you can do is get a hold of the tenant, explain what was told to you, ask him to be straight with you, and let him know that you'll have to run background checks on the other two and they'll need to be on the lease, but other then that you guys will be good. You don't need to worry about their credit or income because he already qualified for that stuff on his own.

Just my 2 cents, plus interest.