All Forum Posts by: Francesco Barbati

Good Morning All,

I have a cousin living with me, she has been paying $500 per month for the year for a year; she does not have a lease). She moved in with one child, now she has 2, there is not enough room for her anymore. I told her not to give me money for June & July and to move out by August, she told me she is not leaving. How can I get her out? Should I give her a written notice?  What should it say? 

 Thanks in advance

Kayann. 

Yes, I agree about the scumbag part.

Modifying a property without permission is not allowed.

Let me tell you my experience with subletting.

I had a tenant, a 25 yo single male who was approved to rent out one of my apartments in Akron, Ohio. He was a good tenant who always paid his rent on time and never caused any problems. After 6 months into a 12 month lease he asked my p/m about the possibility of breaking his lease because he had to move back to Masachusetts, he was informed that if he had the property in  rent ready condition and allowed showings that once a qualified tenant was chosen to replace him that he would only be charged rent until the new tenants moved in and that he would get back his security deposit. Quite fair on my behalf I thought.

In his infinite wisdom instead of accepting my offer he decided to sublet, he didn't perform any background checks, credit checks or have any form of lease signed, in fact he did not even properly identify them. Needless to say they never paid him any rent, he covered it up the first month by paying rent himself, then when they never paid the second month he came clean to my p/m and admitted what he did. In the meantime the squatters had the locks changed and wont respond to any notices posted on the door. Then I had to start the eviction process against my original tenant, it has now just finished in court and the eviction has been granted, just waiting till Tuseday for the bailiff to throw their belongings onto the sidewalk. Luckily I have security cameras installed so I can keep a new he only on thing, unfortunately it looks like they're dealing drugs.

Equity and rent skimming are illegal where I come from. It's also immoral and will cause your left little toe to curl up in spasms. 

Matthew Olszak You're right, he would need to be licensed. I was under the impression that he was an agent but I was wrong he's not.

You really need to take two steps back and remove your personal interest in this property. Verbally or not, friends or not, tenants do not have the legal right to modify a property unless they got it in writing. Regardless of how you want to look at it, your landlord (that is what he is) never owes you anything.

I have seen hundreds of lease agreements where tenants have to fix and repair everything at their expense, and if a tenant took a junky condo and turned it into a multi million dollar condo on their own dime, and the owner sold it, the well that's the tenants dumb luck. Don't invest into something you don't own!

Legally he can sue you for modifying his property, if the modification improved the property or not. Without a written agreement that clearly outlines that you can sublease, well, he could sue you for that as well. Most states, if not all states, do not allow a 3rd party to act as a real estate agent for someone, so you could get in trouble for that as well.

No matter your moral view on this, or what you feel you are owed, you have zero rights in the property unless it was given in writing, and you are fully liable on the flip side. Clearly your not happy that you invested a lot of your time and money to improve the property, and feel the LL is getting a better deal, but that is your own fault for investing in something you do not own.

My advice is you keep renting it and enjoy the rents he is leasing it to you for, or move on and let him do what he may with it.

Legally if you want to sublease it, you need to get a written lease from him saying you can sublease it. With $100 cashflow per month between what you would owe him and the sublessee would pay, your going to lose your shirt big time. I would not touch that with a 10 foot poll if I owed the property. Your better off offering to get it rented for him, then charge him $100 a month for taking care of business on behalf of him without all the risk on your end, but then you get into the entire real estate licenses thing.

Because you started off that you wanted a way for him to not know you were doing this. Then when we told you that is wrong, you tried to justify it because you've made improvements to the property. My point was that if you made improvements to the property, that's a separate deal from your rent and you should've been paid accordingly.

Want to do it right? Get a written lease, and attach an addendum that if you sublet the subleasee is not subject to landlord approval. Then you can put whoever you want in there for whatever price - but you'll still be responsible to the landlord for your lease amount every month.