Landlord changed the contract after signed

[Allison Panila]

Hey everyone, I was talking to a friend of mine who’s renting a basement apartment from the landlord who lives upstairs. There’s a separate entrance to the apartment. What I found odd is that the landlord wrote into the contact that she could only have guests 3 times a month (she signed it without thinking it’d be a problem). The landlord then decided her boyfriend was over too much (he isn’t living there but the landlord must be watching and didn’t define the “three times” as specific time limits, so daytime guests count the same as overnight) THEN the landlord said that my friend would have to pay more per month ($50) to have guests up to 10 times because of “wear and tear” and utilities. She’s in Prince George’s County, MD and is wondering whether this is legal or not. She felt backed into a corner because she wants to be able to have friends over, but being a long time listener, something doesn’t feel rIght to me! I would love your thoughts. I’m going to search PG County tenant laws tomorrow. Thanks!

[Allison Panila]

@Jim K. Hi Jim, thanks for your response. I think you missed the part where I said “guest” and not “living with”. Clearly, you have proven that I must be right in that this landlord got burned at some point and is now reacting with a new tenant for an old one’s mistake. I’m pretty hopeful that you might be able to take your response into consideration with regard to how you handle future responses. 1. My friend is a single woman who DOESN’T want to live with her boyfriend, but she does want to see him regularly. He has his own place in Capitol Hill, DC, he doesn’t need her measly basement apartment in a suburb to live in. 2. I completely understand where you’re saying wear and tear exists, but I think it’s probably unlikely that ANY landlord could expect the place to be in perfect shape when the tenant arrives and leaves, natural wear and tear is going to happen. It probably happens in your own home, I presume. Not because of how many people are there (though it is obvious to me that more people LIVING somewhere means more wear and tear). 3. My friend happens to be a well educated, quiet, responsIble, respectful person working on a post-baccalaureate degree. 4. You made some assumptions that I think we’re unreasonable and quite frankly, I didn’t expect a response like this on Bigger Pockets. I tended to assume that most people wouldn’t reply so negatively and would be respectful in their answers as well (feel free to see the rest of the professional, helpful replies on this thread, for reference). 5. I guess I’m glad you’re not the landlord, because you have proven why this landlord may feel the way she does! Your response is laughable. You so quickly went off the handle and made assumptions, it’s hard to take your actual points into consideration. I’m a nobody on here right now, but for the sake of others who may actually not come back to this website and community after a response like yours, please attempt to tone it down in the future. I don’t think the owners/operators were looking for your kind of response, especially with the positivity they seem to show on a regular basis. Thanks for trying to scare me, but I’m from Jersey, so that doesn’t happen easily. Have a great day!