Overly sweet tenant taking over control of MF!

[Peter Morgan]

I am currently cohabitating as a live in landlord with two other tenants in a multi family setup. One of the tenants has been with us for quite sometime now and the the other tenant has joined us only recently. They are all families with young kids. I as a landlord am friendly with my tenants but not friends. A pattern I have been noticing for quite sometime now my older tenant generally tends to get overly sweet with my new tenants I get and sort of wins their ‘allegiance’ to the extent it starts feeling like the older tenant is the landlord and they are in total control. This tenant even helped plan a ‘great escape’ with my prior tenant with a shortest possible notice during this pandemic, while I was out of station for an extended time. I am not a domineering kind of landlord and very flexible with the terms, I was very surprised back then as the tenant could have easily given me ample heads up before moving out. Fortunately it all ended well as I could find another tenant fairly quickly but what concerns me now is this overly sweet behavior of my older tenant with the new comers that can potentially disrupt my relationship yet again. Am I overthinking on this? Should I just overlook , anyone here had a similar situation? Appreciate your inputs.

[Colleen F.]

I would just reinforce with the new tenant that any questions about the property or your policies they should come to you. Make sure your policies are clear and concise so they don't need to ask anyone.  If you have an opportunity to correct behavior do it.  Another words if the tenant says  Nancy said it would be alright with you to park in that space etc, let them know the policy is this, but please ask me and not Nancy in the future.  I want to be sure that you know i am available by email etc. 

People bond over little kids so if you don't have any you may not be in the club.  Don't get overly concerned about this. Make sure they know how to reach you and what your policies are.