My boyfriend is moving in !

[Jorge Velasquez]

Hello,

Tennant wants to move her boyfriend in rental unit. Lease states she needs written permission from me to do so. She is a great tennant, don't want to loose her. What precautions should I take ...do I need to put him on the lease? I don't necessarily want to do that.  How can I legally protect myself?

[JD Martin]

We require anyone over 18 living in the house to have a background check, and credit if they are financially responsible. We rent to a decent number of younger, single women and I always recommend to them when they bring this up that they either consider not doing it, or maintaining the financial lease in their name only with the boyfriend as a resident at the pleasure of the authorized tenant - this way, when the inevitable domestic police call occurs, she has a greater chance of not being put out of her own home by demonstrating that he's only there at her pleasure and that she's the responsible party on the lease. A couple of times we've been thanked by said girl's father/parents for looking out for her interests - not hard to do when you have daughters and understand how these things can happen.