tenant wants to add an occupant temporarily

[Ali BenAyed]

Hello BiggerPockets members,

My tenant wants to add someone for 3 months as a trial period, she says. I couldn't find anything online about this. Does anyone have an idea how to go about it?

Thanks,

Ali

[Kevin Sobilo]

@Meghan Freckleton-Hopkins, I just run a background check. They don't need to sign anything because they don't have any financial responsibility to you only the actual tenant does.

A couple obvious examples where this is important to the tenant:

1) An adult child living with parents, but expecting to move out on their own. The child moves out, the parents lose a job and get evicted. If the child was on the lease as a tenant, they are sued along with their parents for back rent etc and an eviction now shows up on their background! Very unfair and unreasonable for that adult child. I want agreements that are fair for both myself and my tenant.

2) An single mom and her boyfriend. The mom qualifies for the rental on her own but wants her boyfriend to live there as well. The couple breaks up, but the single mom cannot make the boyfriend leave because he is a tenant on the lease. If he is an occupant on the lease she can choose to boot him. She may need to go to court, but he should have no more rights than a month to month tenant would. So, he could be made to leave in a reasonable amount of time.

The important thing is that if she wants him to be an occupant so that she retains control of the housing situation to provide stability for her and her child(ren) she can. To me that is a fair reason to allow her to have her boyfriend as an occupant and not a tenant.