Advice on Tenant Moving in Boyfriend Without Authorization

[Adam Foti]

Hello all, I am a new member to the forum from Northern New Jersey. I am seeking advice on a situation with a tenant. My wife and I bought our first home in 2015 which uniquely came with a tenant whom rented the upstairs. We agreed to keep the tenant for extra income, however at 28 and 26 years old, we found as ourselves as landlords, as well as first time homeowners. The original tenant moved out after a year due to us restricting his freedoms around the house which the previous owners allowed. Our upstairs space sat vacant for a few months and we initially planned to leave it that way. Due to some unforeseen circumstances and me losing my job in 2016, we put the upstairs back up for rent for extra income.

In January of 2017, we found our current tenant, an older divorced woman in her late 60s. We agreed upon a month-to-month lease agreement of $1400 per month. Everything was perfect, she was polite, quiet as a mouse, and paid her rent on time. We hardly knew she even was up there half the time. Then came March of 2017. She had e-mailed me, telling me a male friend was coming to visit from California. I said that would be fine. The male friend arrived and made himself comfortable in our upstairs. I know nothing about this man except for he appeared to be in his late 60's as well. My female tenant would go off to work like normal and leave this man upstairs. After about 3 weeks I crossed paths with him and he seemed nice. I asked how long are you staying? He replied, I don't know...

I googled around and found that these people are often referred to as ghost tenants. The advice I saw was to nip it in the bud and address it ASAP. I found some legal language I implemented into our month to month lease agreement which basically stated, any guest staying longer than 2 weeks in any 6 month period will be considered a tenant and subject to a $50.00 per week "guest fee." She complied and gave me an additional $200.00 per month. January of 2018, she began telling me he was going away on business for 1 week here and 2 weeks there and would only pay her original rent of $1400.00 plus $50.00 here and there when she claimed he would be there. Honestly, as a landlord I feel like I allowed this woman to walk all over me and tell me what she is going to pay each month.

For 2019, I e-mailed her and advised her that her new rent would be raised to $1600.00 per month. The purpose being that I feel her "friend" is no longer a guest and he is a permanent tenant. She replied back saying, "oh he will be traveling a lot this year, and is leaving on 1/7/19. I will pay $1450 for January to cover the week he is here, and $1400 in February because he will be traveling."

Has any one else had this situation when your tenant moves in another person? How did you address it? Given my situation, how do I explain professionally to this woman, I don't care if her friend is traveling, her rent is still what I say it is? Overall she's a good tenant and I really do not want to have to go through the hassle of searching for another tenant, but I am tired of her haggling with me.

Thank you in advance!