First Purchase Inheriting Tenant

[David S.]

Hi everyone, I just purchased my first property in Westerly, Rhode Island. It is a 2 family and I moved into the second floor. I inherited the tenants on the first floor who were on a month to month lease.

The tenant seemed nice during the home inspection and the seller said she was good so I felt okay with it.

I originally planned to have the tenant sign on to a month to month lease. Previously there was just one tenant on the lease plus her children. She is a young mother with a newborn baby and a toddler.

I wasn’t aware until purchasing the house that the boyfriend also lives there and now he wants to sign on the lease too. He also has a child who is 16-17yrs old who plans to live there too.

My concern is that the first floor is a 2 bedroom unit and that is a total of 5 people. 2 adults, 1 teenager, 1 new born and 1 toddler. This is more people than I would prefer but I would rather not attempt to evict them as I imagine it would be rather difficult with her being a new mother and coronavirus going on. Are there legal limits to the amount of bedrooms needed for each tenant?

Another concern I have is, I do not have a lead certificate of conformance for the property. It was built in 76’. I do not think there are any lead issues with first floor unit as it was recently renovated, however the 2nd floor I am living in looks like it may have lead issues with the windows so I am not sure if I can get a certificate of conformance. Is it possible to get one for just the first floor?

In my research it seems as if I do not need the certificate on conformance since it is a 2 family and I the owner am living in one of the units. However, I am not certain of this and I’m also unsure if having a tenant with a newborn changes this.

If anyone has any information or advice on what I should do about having 5 people living in a 2br or can confirm if I do or don’t need a lead conformance certificate it would be greatly appreciated.

Any other general advice for a first time landlord would be appreciated also.

[Anthony Thompson]

@David S. you can ask the building department if you like but I think you’ll find they won’t get involved in this case. I’ve dealt with this a bit before and the short answer is that unless it’s really excessive you really can’t do much about it.

For example, they could say the 17 year old sleeps in the living room and how could you say otherwise? You’re renting the space, not telling them who can sleep where.

It looks like Kyle is right and you’re exempt from the lead conformance certificate because it’s an owner occupied 2-3F but if you ever move out you’ll need to get those. And yes, you can do it for just one unit - they’ll inspect that unit, the exterior and common areas.

Note also on that page, which Kyle referred to, the comment on insurance. If the tenant sues you for lead poisoning of her child you may not be covered by your insurance policy without the lead conformance certificate, so you may consider getting that anyway. Might be something to talk to your insurance agent about.

Inherited tenants have been my biggest source of headaches but based on what you’ve described and the situation we’re currently in with COVID and evictions (an extension of the moratorium would not at all be surprising at this point), I’d probably lean toward keeping them as well.

If you were able to get their rental application as part of your due diligence then you might do some quick checks to see if you’d approve them now. You don’t have full info on the boyfriend of course but if you have a name you can at least check criminal.