Lease Addendum or New lease??

Question

Hi guys!

I'll try to keep this short.

Inherited tenants on a year long lease. The mother and son were on the lease. Son wants to move back out of state so she wants to remove him from the lease. There doesn't seem to be any issue between the two of them he just wants to go back home. I'm not sure if should have all three terminate the current lease and have the mother sign a new one or just write up a lease addendum.

To add another issue to the situation. I'm not sure if I ran the income of just the mother should would qualify for my rule of 3X rent for monthly income. I assume that's the reason the son was included in the original lease.

Any input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Creighton Bertrand · Answer

Great input @Mitch Coluzzi and @Roy N.

I'm pretty sure I"ll just have to keep the current lease agreement as the mother doesn't meet my min income requirements. I just am unsure of how the mother will react when I tell her I can't remove her son from the lease as she doesn't meet the min requirements...

Roy N. · Answer

First make certain the Mother can carry the financial obligations on her own before you consider releasing the son from the lease.

If the Mother is to continue on her own, you can either execute a Change of Lease or sign a new lease with the mother.   I would typically pick the approach based upon my objectives - i.e. if the tenants were on a term lease and I wished to retain the original end-date, I would execute a Change of Lease.   If the tenants were on an annual lease, but I thought best to have the Mother continue month-2-month, I would offer a new lease.