Time to look into tenant's rights?

mrsconn23

Dear Prudence,

My brother has been living with me for the last two years while finishing high school, never officially on the lease. Now that he’s graduated, I’ve been trying to help him find a job so I can get him qualified for my lease, but he’s had little success so far. I’ve given him until the end of the month to find work, because my current landlord is beginning to suspect that he’s living with me, but I don’t know if he’ll find any work, and I can’t kick him out. He’s trans and mentally ill, and has no one else to live with. We were evicted from my last place because he was staying in my living room, and I’m terrified that it will happen here—what do I do?

—Brother in Need

charlotte989875

That's a tough one; what about reaching out to a legal aid group that is focused on tenant's rights, or social worker? You don't want to find yourself in the situation where you lose your housing because an illegal tenant is staying there, that doesn't help anyone. 

OliveOilsMom

I guess I need more info.  If the brother was attending high school, I'm assuming he was under 18.  Does LW only have a 1 bedroom?  Is that why it would be an issue?  Any why can't an unemployed person be listed on a lease?

Either way, I think the best course of action would be to look into legal aid for tenant's rights.  LW could also look to see if there are any affordable housing agencies in the area.

bleve0821

OliveOilsMom said:

I guess I need more info.  If the brother was attending high school, I'm assuming he was under 18.  Does LW only have a 1 bedroom?  Is that why it would be an issue?  Any why can't an unemployed person be listed on a lease?

Either way, I think the best course of action would be to look into legal aid for tenant's rights.  LW could also look to see if there are any affordable housing agencies in the area.

When we rented before we got married, the apartment was under my name and only my name.  The property management had a really hard and fast rule about people who weren't on the lease occupying the premises.  We couldn't get him on the lease initially for a stupid reason I don't even remember, but I think it had something to do with the fact that he wasn't employed at the time and was therefore seen as a liability to our ability to make rent payments.  This sounds like it could be a similar situation.

In our case, we were on great terms with our property manager (she was awesome, pulled a lot of strings for us), so it didn't end up being an issue for us, but I imagine it could have been bad news bears at a different complex.

FWIW, we have that same clause in the lease for the house we are renting out.  We know our tenants, so we're not worried about it, but it's a cover-your-ass thing.  I imagine it is a liability/insurance thing for the property managers, but I am not sure.

At any rate, yes, I agree that looking into legal aid would be a good place to start.

VarunaTT

Technically, K isn't on my lease and we could get in trouble for it. I didn't want her on the lease though, just in case things didn't work out, so she could move and be free and clear if necessary.  Basically, we keep our heads down and don't do anything that would get the management called about us or notice us beyond, "What a well paying always timely client!" No one w/in the complex really seems to care.

I'd go to legal aid as well and see if he can get himself declared the kid's guardian.  It sounds like he was still a minor, so he couldn't have been on the lease anyway.  

short+sassy

I have so little sympathy for this LW, it's not even funny.  It would be one thing if odd circumstances happened and her brother ended up living with her while she was at her present apartment.  Still not cool, but at least more understandable.

Maybe that was what happened at the first place that I'm assuming she was given a notice to vacate, not evicted.  People constantly confuse those terms.  A notice to vacate is the LL telling a tenant "you need to leave in 30 days" (assuming allowable by law).  An eviction is court ordered.  And would only come into effect if that tenant refused to leave within X time and the LL had to go to court to get an eviction.  Your legal minute for the day, lol.  I'll give the LW the benefit of the doubt that they weren't actually evicted.

But at her current place, she totally LIED and MISREPRESENTED who was going to be living in her unit!!!!  She deserves to get kicked the f**k out (sigh, but given whatever notice is required by law, blah, blah).  I can't even tell you how hugely pissed off I would be.  I am a land lady and I do have it written in all my leases that anyone not on the lease cannot be in the unit for more than 7 days, without my written consent.  Because I have a right to know who is living in my damn properties.  And that they are not a violent felon or a pedophile or have 100 counts of vandalism.

Really not that hard to understand.

Not only that, but if she couldn't find somewhere that was okay with putting her brother on the lease, she wasn't looking hard enough.  I mean, I can't speak for every rental place everywhere, but often...as long as one of the adult tenants makes enough money to cover income requirements...it really doesn't matter if they all do.

I mean, she's acting like this was some impossible situation.  It isn't.  It never was.  She made it that way because, for whatever reason, she chose to rent a place where she secretly knew she was ALREADY breaching the contract when she signed the lease.  Like the saying goes, "You made your bed, now lie in it."

For example, I have an income requirement the tenants have to make at least 3x the rental amount (gross income).  But that can be one person or combined.  However, ALL adults over the age of 18 have to sign the lease and agree to a background check.  That part has nothing to do with "who makes what money".  

@OliveOIlsMom, even if it is a one-bedroom unit, that wouldn't matter for occupancy.  Fair Housing Law (Federal) states that LLs can't discriminate against people based on family size.  With the exception being jurisdictional occupancy laws.  Those can vary by area and are also sometimes guided by if people are related or not.  But I can't imagine two adults living in a one-bedroom apartment is going to break any area's occupancy laws.

short+sassy

VarunaTT said:

Technically, K isn't on my lease and we could get in trouble for it. I didn't want her on the lease though, just in case things didn't work out, so she could move and be free and clear if necessary.  Basically, we keep our heads down and don't do anything that would get the management called about us or notice us beyond, "What a well paying always timely client!" No one w/in the complex really seems to care.

I'd go to legal aid as well and see if he can get himself declared the kid's guardian.  It sounds like he was still a minor, so he couldn't have been on the lease anyway.  

Eeek, I wrote my post before I saw yours.

You know I'm not hating on you and K .  But if I had a tenant with a situation like your all's, I'd at least want to be informed so I could run a background check, even if I agreed to not put the other person on the lease.  Though I would want to do that at some point in the future, once it became a "definite" thing...for lack of a better word.

And if your complex has a more "hum, hum, hum...we're not looking if you're behaving yourself" attitude, win-win for everyone.

VarunaTT

Oh, I know I'm violating their rules, I don't try and pretend that if they caught me, I wouldn't be out and deservedly so.  I struggled with it internally.  I just didn't want to find myself caught again, so really, it was about both of us being able to walk away just in case.

She'll be on the next lease if we continue as we our, for both of our protections at that point.