Keeping tabs on one tenant for a long-term lease can be a challenge, and the work grows exponentially when extra bodies are included in it. Allowing roommates in your rental properties can be a profitable way to fill vacancies. Concurrently, it also creates special issues for landlords
1. Who is the tenant?Do not go for the "one tenant is in charge" approach to roommate rentals, if it can be avoided. It is best to have each adult occupant obligated on the lease. Otherwise, it can quickly become impossible to evict the currant occupant, or collect unpaid rent. Have language in the lease that prevents a revolving door policy where overnight guests soon turn into long-term occupants, and the person who signed the lease is long gone.
2. Is the lease legal?Recently, a trend has developed in college towns for cities to limit the number of people living in rental housing - especially single-family homes located in established neighborhoods.
Without question, those laws are directed at rowdy students, landlords who rent to established tenants are still bound to abide by them. Landlords must know what restrictions may apply in their area. If they do not the laws, they risk signing a lease that may not be binding. Now, landlords will have problems, especially when they collect rent. Therefore, they must always keep track of how many people are living in their property at all times.
3. Distributing the deposit?Do not acquiesce to roommates who want to move out early - and want to take their portion of the deposit. Only at the end of the lease, after the tenants have removed their belongings, and the landlord has inspected the property should the deposit be distributed.
The tenants together are entitled to an accounting, and a return of their deposit. Whatever deals the roommates may have made with one another are generally not binding on the landlord.
When a roommate goes rogue and wants to move out early, the lease is there for the landlord's protection. Do not make deals that compromise your legal rights. If the tenant is not committed for the long-haul, the landlord should consider a shorter-term lease.
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