Authorized Occupant Agreement

[Wesley W.]

Does anyone have an "authorized occupant" agreement they can post?  I thought I saw one on here seevral months ago but cannot find it now.

I'm looking for a document that says, in effect, the undersigned is an authorized occupant at said address, and agrees to abide by rules set in place by tenant's lease, and agrees to make to claim of tenancy now or in the future, agrees to vacate with x days notice, etc.

[Marcia Maynard]

Originally posted by @Wesley W.:

Thanks @Marcia Maynard.  I have a similar clause, but I am looking for something that temporarily permits John Smith to temporarily occupy w/mutual permission of tenant and landlord for x days, between y date and z date, to vacate on or before date q.

Something like that.

I have a tenant that is asking for a nephew new to the area and is just starting a job to stay for month while he saves money for an apartment.

I owe it to my other tenants to vet him, but I also want a very clear agreement as to how long he may stay.  As many of us know, "just a month" has a rather loose interpretation with some tenants.

I have an "unauthorized occupant" clause in our lease, so there are consequences to the tenant of record if he overstays, but again - I just want a clear written agreement to memorialize the understanding of how long he may stay.

We once granted permission for the father of our tenant to stay for a month in order to receive cancer treatments at a local hospital. Our guest policy allows up to 14 days, but we extended it because of the special circumstances. We gave our tenant written permission that allowed this, and did not require an addendum to the rental agreement.

You could consider the nephew as a guest and you are granting permission to your tenant to allow him to stay longer than the usual time period allowed for guests. But that assumes the nephew maintains another address as his official residence. Perhaps the home of his parents?

In some jurisdictions a guest or authorized occupant becomes a tenant by default after a specific period of time or if specific criteria is met... such as receiving mail, paying for utilities, or registering a vehicle at the address. Make sure the nephew has another official address and doesn't do anything that would establish him as a tenant.

I would just write your terms in an addendum. The tenant needs to sign off on the agreement. If the nephew doesn't leave by the specific date, then the tenant could be at risk for losing his housing too. Because if you need to evict the nephew, it would be difficult to do so without evicting all the people in the unit. Make sure your tenant understands that. Why not add an administrative fee into the new agreement to cover your time and effort in trying to accommodate?

In your situation, the nephew hopes to save enough money in one month to get a place of his own? He's starting a new job and looking for housing in his spare time? Seems this could be difficult to accomplish in one month. Be prepared for him to extend his stay to two months or more. You might even consider adding extra rent for the time period the nephew is there. That would give your tenant incentive to re-house his nephew sooner.