Roommates in Rental - Structuring lease for Possibly additional people moving in

[Eric Vasilopoulos]

Hi everyone, I have a 6 BD, 2 BA house for rent and 6 adult friends want to rent it. They said that every other weekend two kids will be staying over. How can I structure the lease so that the kids or additional adults don't begin to move in full time? or even structure it in a way that if additional people move in there would be an additional fee?

[Eric Vasilopoulos]

Quote from @Abel Curiel:

Quote from @Eric Vasilopoulos:

Hi everyone, I have a 6 BD, 2 BA house for rent and 6 adult friends want to rent it. They said that every other weekend two kids will be staying over. How can I structure the lease so that the kids or additional adults don't begin to move in full time? or even structure it in a way that if additional people move in there would be an additional fee?

Hello Eric! 
Great to hear that you have tenants lined up.

This is not legal advice ... this is based on what my clients and I have done in the past:

You can include in your lease (or add a lease rider) stating that visitors staying more than X days must complete a rental application. If the tenants are children, they'd have to be added to the lease for a rent increase of $X per tenant.

The fee for additional tenants would be totally up to you and should be a significant amount as it would set a precedent for the other 5 tenants to potentially move someone in (i.e. their children, spouses, siblings, etc.).

In Brandon Turner's book on managing rental properties, he shares a 'Rules and Regulations' form that can be used for your situation which outlines the rules on Occupancy. In his example, he uses a 14-day period to specify when a visitor would have to apply to become a tenant.
Brandon also includes a 'Roommate economic unit addendum' in which all roommates agree to make 1 single payment to the landlord (vs. 6 separate payments). They also agree that any 1 roommate violating the lease can result is termination of the lease for everyone. I feel like this could be a good way to have the tenants hold one another responsible/accountable for following the lease.

Happy to share these docs if you want to take a look. Just shoot me a DM.

 
All the best!

Abel

 Thanks Abel, yes please that would be great if you can DM me.