Use of Common Areas when the possessions are one tenants

[Earl W.]

Long story short: I rented to three qualified but young tenants.  A boyfriend/girlfriend couple and the girlfriend's cousin. For whatever reason they had a falling out. I've been getting texts from both sides complaining about the other side. This is what I've done so far.

Two bedrooms, three tenants.  One couple and one single girl. Tenant A (The couple) has asked Tenant B (The single girl) to leave and find a new place. Tenant B feels as if she's being forced out of the common areas and "pushed out of the house".  Tenant B wants to stay and demands to have access to all of the common areas including to the furniture in the common areas.  I tell tenant A that Tenant B has rights to the common areas.  Tenant A proceeds to tell me that Tenant B is MORE than welcome to use the common area as long as she doesn't touch any of her stuff....BTW the couch, Remote, TV, all decorations, etc all belong to tenant A... Tenant B asks me how she's supposed to be allowed in the living room when she's not allowed to sit on the furniture or use the TV.

My questions are as follows:  (I live in Iowa)

1.) I feel like it doesn't matter who's TV/couch/dining room table is in the common area, as long as it's in a common area all tenants should have EQUAL rights to said furniture.  If Tenant A doesn't want Tenant B to use her couch/TV then she should move it to her bedroom. That's just my opinion.

Anyways, are there any legal guidelines or links that deal with this matter that I can send to my tenants for review?

2.) When does this legally even become my problem?  I don't want Tenant B to feel like she's being pushed into her bedroom, but is it even my issue if she feels like she's being "harassed" by the other tenants.   NOTE: I did not rent "rooms" to each tenant.  I rented to the house to them together.

[Marcia Maynard]

I assume the rental agreement lists all three individuals as "jointly and severally liable". They all have equal tenant rights. They need to sort this out among themselves. If at any point it becomes a problem for you, such as rent not being paid in full on time or damage to the unit, then you will address them as a group with each one named on any legal notices.

I would simply tell them, 

"This is something you'll need to sort out among yourselves. The unit is rented to all three of you, jointly and severally liable. That means you must take responsibility for fulfilling the terms of the rental agreement together, but if you don't, each one of you could be held accountable individually as well. So it's in your best interest to resolve this matter amicably. 

Each of you has a right to tenancy under the law. This includes quiet and peaceful enjoyment of the home. So if I need to get involved, either all three of you stay or all three of you go.

If someone decides to move-out and you wish to change the make-up of the household, you will need to notify me of that as well. We can write an addendum to remove a person from the lease if all are in agreement to do so, however whoever is left will need to qualify on their own to continue to rent the unit. 

Also, the full security deposit is held by me until the unit is vacant and a final accounting is complete. So if one person or two people move out, then they will need to recover their share of the security deposit from the person(s) remaining. That's something else for you to sort out.

Let me know what you decide to do."