Avoiding Tenant Rights

[Ryan Mulder]

Hey!  We have a property we're just getting started with in Mars Hill near Asheville that we are short-term renting.  I want to increase the max amount of nights a guest can book but I'm afraid of running into the issue of tenant rights and possible evictions.  Does anyone know how long a tenant has to live in a property in North Carolina before they assume tenant rights?  Has anyone else had trouble with this issue or is it something to not really worry about?  We're brand new and learning the ropes and just trying to avoid any future issues or headaches.  Thanks!

[Mindy Jensen]

Quote from @John Underwood:

You can't or shouldn't try and avoid someone's rights.

You are 100% correct, John! You should NEVER try to avoid tenant's rights.

However, I believe he is trying to avoid legal tenancy, which (mainly) carries different removal-from-premises procedures. Short term rental occupants do not have the same legal rights to occupancy as long term rental occupants do. 

There was a rather famous case in California where an uninformed landlord rented his home to a very informed "professional tenant" for more than 30 days, establishing tenancy in that state. The tenant refused to leave, and the landlord found out the hard way that he would have to go through the formal eviction process in order to get the tenant out of the house, rather than simply have them removed for trespassing.