All Forum Posts by: Wesley W.

Okay @Account Closed, I am channeling the squirmy tenants of the world...

"But, your honor, I live with my boyfriend at 123 main st.  I am a stay-at-home mom, so none of the utility bills are in my name.  I'm not on the lease there, either, because my boyfriend's landlord isn't an inflexible a-hole like this guy is!"

I do, in fact, have her sister's address and phone number as an emergency contact.  If she didn't fill out a change of address, it would just show up at that address and therefore not provide me any proof.

I guess what I'm looking for is that evidence I can give to a judge that proves the lease was violated.  I can see this defended pretty easily.  My case would be pretty weak if I had to "prove" she was staying there to a judge, I would think.  (P.S. This is a MTM lease, so I could just give notice of termination, but let's hypothesize if that weren't the case...)

@Account Closed always a wealth of great info!

I'm curious - what if she just went ahead and changed the address for certain mail items, and didn't fill out a "change of address" form?

How long would she have to occupy before attaining tenants' rights?

What is my obligation for discovering her occupancy?  (a legal phrase that comes to mind is, the time in which a person "knew or should have known" she was living there)

Hi folks,

Okay, I'm pretty sure my current tenant stays a lot at her boyfriend's place, and has allowed her sister (with two young children in tow) to stay at her place. I was suspicious for weeks, as I had gone about 6 weeks without seeing my tenant's car (I was there daily doing a renovation in another unit) but would quite regularly see her sister coming and going.  My suspicions were elevated when I " a friend of mine" happened to see some mail addressed to the sister being delivered to the unit in question.

I stopped the sister one day and asked her point blank if she was living there now, and she said "no", that she was coming over to "hang out" and check on the place because her sister was staying with her BF.  I didn't mention the mail to her.

I addressed my concerns with the current tenant (whom showed up last week), and she corroborated this story.  I didn't mention the mail to her, either.

 My tenant's lease has a clause forbidding unauthorized occupants for more than 7 consecutive days or 14 total days over the course of the year. 

Here are my questions:

(1)  Is it an urban myth, or is it illegal for me "a friend of mine" to look into a tenant's mailbox as part of an investigation like the one described above?

(2)  Assuming I am correct about the occupant, what the possible consequences for me choosing to ignore this situation? Despite the lease, does she at some point get tenants' rights (I'm thinking something akin to "adverse possession.") or do I have to option to consider her a trespasser if I choose?

At the very least, I am going to give notice to enter and do an inspection in the coming days, just to see what has been going on inside.  

Other facts: current tenant has 2X security deposit down due to unverifiable income, and has been a trouble-free tenant otherwise.  As of this writing, rent has been paid on time since I noticed the shenanigans. (c. early April)

Any tips/advice/feedback is, as always, welcome and appreciated.

 I'm not sure what this means, John?  

There is no way for them to know you are using Google Voice.  When they call and I don't answer, they get a voicemail greeting that I recorded with my own voice like they would anyone they called with voicemail.  

I also like the increased flexibility of being able to get email copies of text messages automatically sent to me (for documentation purposes), and even though the transcription is less than perfect, an email transcript of a VM someone left so I don't need to log in to my voicemail to listen to a message.

 So they are not wasting your and their time when they realize that for the first time at your showing.

I tell prospective tenants early on via email that where a person lives is a very personal decision, so please do a drive-by to get a "feel" for the neighborhood.

Since I've done this, it has dramatically reduced my "no show" appointments, which I am sure were folks who just "kept on driving" as I waited on the porch outside for them.

@William Haller

Unfortunately, Landlord-Tenant cases are only listed for the first 14 days after the last appearance.  Too bad.  Anyone know of a source for eviction records?  How do the paid sites search for them?  (or do they search this site and say "none"?)

 If you add clauses to your lease that tack MONETARY penalties to unauthorized occupants, pets, smoking - then you WOULD be able to evict for non-payment, no?  Something to think about for next time.

I think a better compromise would be having them pay one of the two vacant months.  A longer lease is nice, but they could break it.  Cash in hand is worth more to me than the promise of a longer tenure, especially since it may lock in your rental rate to a sub-market value towards the end of the lease.

I would have the tenant sign an estoppel agreement. ASAP.  Otherwise, you have absolutely no documentation on what the agreed upon rent is.  The day after closing, the tenant could hand you $100 and say "here's the rent, Landlady!"