How many people on lease?

[Andy R.]

How many people should be on the lease?

I was speaking to a buy & hold investor in Florida and she says that she only puts one person on the lease, the breadwinner in the relationship. She still runs background checks on all people over the age of 18.

She says she does this because if the higher earner were to leave (divorce, breakup, death) and stop paying rent, she doesn't have to go to court to evict the remaining tenant (if remaining tenant does not continue paying rent) but rather call the police because now the remaining tenant is trespassing. 

BP, what are your thoughts on this? 

[Thomas S.]

If a individual is living in a landlords property with the landlords knowledge, whether they are on the lease or not, they are a tenant. Pretending a individual is not a tenant does not make it so. When the individual on the lease leaves the remaining tenant(s) must be given notice and treated as any tenant. This may involve evicting.