Tenant in studio basment apartment wants to add boyfriend

[Will Morrison]

Hi, 

House hacker here. I've got a tenant who wants to add her boyfriend to basement studio apt. It is currently only her on the lease. I am not opposed to allowing him to move in down there, however want to protect myself as the land lord. My question is, what is the best way to go about adding a tenant to an already established lease? My first thought is to have him fill out a Zillow application (to better understand him as a tenant) then make an addendum to the lease that maintains the primary tenants responsibility however allows the boyfriend to stay there. Ideally, making her responsible for him. What are the thoughts?

[Bill Crow]

@Will Morrison

I would vet him just like any other new tenant and add him to the lease as an additional tenant. He needs to be fully responsible - the idea of making her responsible for him sets you and them up for some real problems if their relationship sours. On the flip side, if you don’t treat him as a tenant in every sense of the word, you may not have rights to protect your property (such as eviction) if he becomes a problem.

To summarize, he should be “all in” or “all out”, nothing in between.