Adding guest to lease??

[Kevin Andrews]

Hi all,

Had a tenant request to temporarily move in her sister and what the process was for doing that. The apartment is in Rhode Island and  3 bedroom apartment. I have two adult parents living there plus 4 children, so 2 people per room already. The rent is currently 900.00 per month. Tenant said her sister would try to move out ASAP but may need until tax time next April. 

My thoughts on this is I'm OK with adding a tenant provided they go through a credit/background check and fill out an application. I was thinking about charging $50.00 extra per month for extra wear and tear and water usage in the apartment (I pay for water/sewer). 

My question is should I come up with an entire new rent agreement with the two current tenants and the sister signing it? Should I do an addendum to rental agreement and just add the sister on? I am currently on a month to month rental agreement with tenants and just want to cover all my bases because I've been in a situation before where I let one person sign the agreement and had her daughter and daughters boyfriend living there, and then the tenant who signed the agreement left and I was stuck with the daughter and daughters boyfriend which didn't last very long. 

Best way to approach this? The current tenants are absolutely great and I have no intentions of trying to get rid of them, but don't want issues with the sister in the future.

Thanks all

[Matthew Kreitzer]

The best way to approach this is to consult with a local Landlord/Tenant attorney that can better advise you on all the legal ramifications of each the proposed courses of action, or if it is even legal in the first place based on local or municipal law.

[Nicole A.]

You could probably do an addendum or, since it's month-to-month, just a new lease... but the new lease or addendum needs to state who receives the security deposit back upon move-out.

[Marcia Maynard]

What does "temporary" mean? Think about that and encourage your tenant to think this through.  In most jurisdictions, once a person has established residency, they will be considered your tenants and will have equal tenant rights of tenancy, whether or not their name is on the rental agreement and whether or not they were the original tenant. The sister may move out in a few months or may never leave. Are you all okay with that?

If the number of people in the rental unit still falls within the parameters of your rental criteria, then fine. HUD guidelines are 2 per bedroom plus one. But factor in the size of the property and the number of bathrooms too for determining occupancy limits.

The pricing on the unit should be by size of the unit, not by the number of occupants. I would not change the rent. However, it would not be unreasonable to ask for additional security deposit to cover your risk. 

If your jurisdiction allows it, it would be reasonable to charge an application fee to cover tenant screening. You may also be able to charge an administrative fee for your time and effort in processing the rental agreement paperwork and coordinating the move-in/move-out.

[JD Martin]

Since you are already on a month to month, and don't mind that setup, what is to be gained by adding a person and giving them rights to occupancy? I don't think you are on good legal grounds by increasing the rent based on the number of people there. For the water/sewer, that's a different story entirely. If it is possible to have them pay it directly, that is what I would do. If not, I would consider installing a submeter and billing them directly for actual usage based exactly how the utility company bills you. 

The best way to not have issues with the sister is to not allow her to establish residency at all. You could simply say "I'm sorry, I can't add any additional people to the lease" and leave it at that, and look out the window when she moves the sister in anyway. If you've covered your bases with the water and sewer, the sister then becomes nothing more than a houseguest if you end up in a bad situation, with no legal rights other than what she might establish in court. 

[Kevin Andrews]

thank you all for the responses. After much reading and thinking I've decided to have the guest go through the application process and do an addendum to the lease so that everyone is under lease agreement rules and is responsible for rent in the case the original tenants move out