Lease extension with old and added (new) tenants

[Jan H.]

Hello BP community, 

This is going to be a long-winded post, so please bare with me...:)

A 24-month lease is coming up for renewal for one of our properties and before I agree to renew with the tenant(s) I wanted to check if someone has been in a similar situation as this case may be a bit complex...

I leased my property to an elderly couple, a sister of the wife. Unfortunately, last year both elderly females (sisters) passed away and the only person been left on the lease is the widowed husband. They have been really good tenants and paid rent on time, looked after the property, etc.

He would like to stay in the property and renew the lease, however, there are other family members staying on the property too now who were not on the lease originally. Please note that this is a 2-unit property, so there is plenty of space.

Question 1: Can I add more people on the same lease that was signed almost 2-years ago and just extend the original lease? I am planning to screen the family members who would go on the extension and the rent will be increased by a certain amount.

Question 2: Can the new tenants be responsible for the condition of the property currently if they sign the lease extension and get added to the original lease? Of course, I will clarify that they agree to abide to the same T&Cs as per the original lease.

Here is a twist: We just discovered that they did not pay the garbage bill since they moved in and the past due charge was placed on the tax bill. The gentleman verbally promised me that he would pay this by beginning of next month. We also learned that they also owe these charges for 2015, which they agreed to pay asap. They also have 2 dogs now without permission.

I was thinking of giving him a 15-day Notice to cure Violations or Move Out notice to just protect myself (in the past I was generous enough to try helping tenants that backfired on me). 

I understand that I only have to provide a 3-day notice by law, but being hopeful, I must believe that they will pay all past-due amounts within 2 weeks, remove the dogs and we can continue talking about the lease extension.

Question 3: Can I serve a 15-day notice instead of the 3-day Notice?

If someone has any experience with such a matter or advice, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks!