"Part Time" pseudo tenants?

[Sam Leon]

ok have a situation I need some advice on.

2/1 unit with tenants, father on the 50s and daughter early 30s.  Current lease is a single page lease from last owner, with hardly any rules in writing, which I have to live with till July 2015.

Recently I noticed a new vehicle parked outside and vehicle owner has a key to the unit.  Upon further inquiry it turns out to be the daughter's new BF, who apparently has been given a key and stays with her on weekends and sometimes on weekdays.

In my own lease I disallow guests to stay 7 consecutive days or longer so even if they are under my lease, which they are not, they haven't broken any rules because they could technically have a guest for 6 days then skip a day, then 6 days again and be in compliance?  In this case its 3, 4, 5 days per week, or another way to look at it he is there at least half the time.

My issue is first he is not screened, he has a key, he is using water which I pay for, and his car occasionally causes parking space congestion.

I am going to have a talk with my tenant about this, but there is nothing in the lease that prohibits this.  But if he has a key and is present when he others are out, I am going to insist he be screened.  I think I will tell them if they renew in July the rent will jump substantially higher.

[Sharon Tzib]

Well first of all I would deal with the father and not the daughter on this one. Secondly, you have to be very careful with state laws here, because in some states, once an occupant stays longer than "x" days and/or starts receiving mail, you technically can't kick them out without going through eviction proceedings, so you definitely don't want this guy living there without being screened by you.

Even though you inherited the lease, presumably as skimpy as it was, it did identify the occupants, of which the boyfriend was not one. So you need to tell the dad that the bf is not legally allowed to stay there, use utilities, or parking without going through your tenant check process. And if he qualifies, then there will need to be an addendum to the lease increasing the rent to offset the increase in occupants. That's how I would handle it.