letting a tenant bring in a room mate. should I charge more?

Question

I have a new tenant pretty rock solid guy

He moved in by himself he mentioned his girls would visit

but now he wants them moved in permanently

and he also wants his cousin to live at the place

He asked me what does he need to do?

i said he just needs to supply the names of the people that will be living there.

should I be charging him more money?

Kyle J. · Answer

Unless these people are your roommates (i.e. living with you), its not common to charge based on the number of people. Normally you would charge one rent amount for the PROPERTY, not the number of people living in it.

For instance, if I'm renting a 3 bdrm house for $1000 a month, it doesn't matter to me whether one person lives there or three. It's still going to be $1000 a month.

You WILL want to screen and approve everyone living there though.

Patrick L. · Answer

Unless you're paying utilities I'd just ask any new adult that's moving into the house to fill out an application and I'd make sure they pass my background check.  When you advertised the property for sale at a price that wasn't for X number of people.  If the property reasonably accommodates the numbers of adults that will be living there then I wouldn't have an issue as long as I know who is living there.  Your original tenant is already responsible for whatever damage is done to the property with their security deposit, any damage done by any of the people living there would come out of that deposit.

Kyle J. · Answer

By getting into the practice of charging more rent or deposit based on the number of people, you run the risk of illegally discriminating based on familial status. Don't do it. As long as they don't exceed the occupancy limits for your area, it really shouldn't matter how many people are living there. Just think of it as more people to help out with the rent (and also to hold responsible for the rent if its not paid).

Lynn McGeein · Answer

If a tenant wanted 2 roommates to move in after the lease was signed, I would make both of them qualify in their own right and add them to the lease.  If you don't have the maximum deposit allowed already, ask for a larger deposit.  What happens if they move in without qualifying, the couple has a fight, the original guy moves out and stops paying?  Yes, you can take him to court, but you're safer if you know the other 2 could handle the rent if something happened.  I'd want to make sure all qualify and all are responsible on the lease.

Mike Hurney · Answer

Timing of Steven's topic is fortuitous!
I had a request this week from a Tenant (1 of 3 roommates) that they are now staying.
Last month they gave me a 60 day move out notice because they were moving into a new place with their significant other.

However #1's significant other is moving in. Now 4 roommates.

My first inclination is to raise the rent $50. covering wear/tear, more water and sewer. I do have a completed (and checked) Application for #4.
Now with the familial discrimination possibility, I may wait for the anniversary of the original 3 where I was planning to raise the rent anyway.
Of course checking with our "Bible" (Legal Tactics: Tenants' Rights in Massachusetts 6th edition) we're still within the 410.400: Minimum Square Footage - 150.SF for 1st occupant and 100.SF for each additional occupant.

Mark Tamondong · Answer

Definitely a yes. Charging more so that you can support maintenance requirements when needed, as well as other repairs. If you want to have security that the space you will rent out will be safe and OK, then you should re-compute how much you should be adding to the rent. Make sure that you both end up with a good deal for the rent, get the number of people that will be living on that space and that could be the basis of how much shall you get him to pay for.  Also, you should set a limit [if you think is applicable, that is if you space for rent is only small] for the number of people that is going to live and rent on it.

There are also some factors that you need to look at:

1. Certain areas/location has occupancy limits.
2. Increasing rent can fall under discrimination on familial status – which can be illegal.
3. Renting a room as a housemate and renting a space are two different things. If you rented out a 5 bedroom house for $1000, as long as he pays, the owner should not meddle regardless how many people lives there (as long as FACT 1 is met).

Thanks,
Mark

Karen Margrave · Answer

Parents have every right to have their kids live in their house. I agree, you are renting "the property", not rooms, etc. unless you are running a boarding house, where rent is 'by the room'.

Other than that you start getting into being a busy body always spying on tenants, etc. and take away from their free enjoyment of the space.

I've had 14 girls living in my house at once, and it showed like a model. It's not the number of people in a house, it's the type of people.

Matt Devincenzo · Answer

To add to what everyone else said here, I agree on not charging anything additional you're renting a property not a # of people. One very important thing to make sure everyone understands though is the moving out part.

Make sure they all understand that if any one person moves out the security deposit does not go with them(or someone else has to put up the money for it) and the remaining people must still qualify for the rental. If anyone moves out in the middle of the term it is possible that the others will not be able to qualify and therefor it will be considered breaking the lease early and there will be penalties. If for some reason the cousin screws up he could get everyone put out of the apartment.

Not saying that any of those things might happen just make sure that your original tenant understands that adding others to the lease means that everyone is responsible for the property not just him that way if it does come up later and he says "I want my security deposit back I'm moving out" you can say "remember we discussed this before so you and your cousin need to figure it out".

Steven Maduro · Answer

Thanks guys that makes total sense

Simon W. · Answer

Steven Maduro, if you don't feel like like you should charge extra then you should get another security deposit if any damages done by the other roommates. Also definitely get a background check. cuz hey you never know.

letting a tenant bring in a room mate. should I charge more?

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