Tenant has boyfriend moving in

[Jack Halldin]

Have a small 644 sq ft condo that has always rented to 1 person. Now my tenant emails me and says fiancé is moving in with her. She has been good tenant, 1+ year, no problems pays rent on time so I'm going to update lease but curious if people have raised rent in these type of situations? It will definitely be twice wear and tear on the place, or do I just deal with it when they leave with security deposit? Also in this situation do I do normal background and credit checks? Thought was originally yes but if I come up with anything bad and I say he doesn't qualify most likely I lose my good tenant. Anyone with similar experience? Would love any insight. Thanks. Jack

[Account Closed]

I have a different take on this.  

I was the resident manager of a 26 unit (including mine) apartment building in Silicon Valley, next to a university.  Most units were small studios.  It was a very old building that had been converted, so apartments were different sizes, but only about 6 one-bedrooms, the rest studios.  And about half of my tenants were students - mostly grad students.

What I learned to do in your situation, was to not put the BF/GF on the contract.  And the reason was because I didn't want to lose my original tenant.  Lovers come and go, and I didn't want my original tenant to face having to move out altogether, just to get out of the relationship AND the contract.  

So, this is what I did, and it actually worked beautifully for me.  In my contract - and probably in yours - there was a clause that said that guests could only stay so many days - unless the landlord gave written permission.  

So, I would give them written permission for the lover to be an indefinite guest, as long as there weren't any problems, and that this permission could be rescinded if there were.

Now, technically, the lover becomes a tenant once they begin living there - it establishes tenancy.  BUT, it only establishes them as a month to month tenant.  Hence, when the original tenant wants to kick them out, they just have to give them 30 days notice to move out.

Or, they come to me and say they want him/her out, and I give him/her 30 days notice to move, that I'm rescinding my permission to stay any longer as a guest.

I would verbally tell them I don't care who is paying whom money for living there.  That's between them.  But, regardless, the lover is only a guest.

It will give her the power to kick him out.  And you the power to also kick him out if they start having knock down drag-outs on the front lawn.  

Also, increasing the rent would give him a better argument about being a tenant, etc., as opposed to being a guest. I guess you could say as long as he's there, the rent would go up to such and such, but then you put them in the position of being tempted to lie to you.  I never raised their rents.

The good news is, your tenant is being honest with you.  She could have just snuck him in and lied.

I also did not do background checks, etc., as then it would have crossed over into tenant rights, as opposed to guest rights.  I just figured I could always just kick him/her out.

And, you would still have the power to just give an eviction notice to the original tenant, if it's something really crazy that violates the lease.

At any rate, this is what worked for me.  Never had any problems.  

Ironically, the only time I had to kick out fighting couples - it was the ones the tenant had snuck in, rather than asked permission for.

But, this is also why I only ever did MTM agreements, too.  Even with MTM agreements, though, you could still lose your good tenant if they're both listed on it, which is why I just made the lover a guest with written permission.