Tenant has unauthorized people and pets living in the rental home
Attorney Tom Olsen: All right, all available to you. 844-580-9326. Let's go to Peter in Titusville. Peter, you're on WDBL. Go ahead.
Peter: Thank you, Mr. Olsen. I am a landlord and I have in all of my lease agreements, a paragraph that says, "The taking in of additional residence, whether persons or pets not initially declared and listed on the rental application without prior written approval by the landlord, is a violation of this rental agreement and constitutes the immediate termination thereof." How do I enforce that if somebody brings somebody in without letting me know according to my statement they violate--
Tom: Peter, let's start from the beginning. On your application, does it state how many adults, how many kids, how many pets can be there?
Peter: Yes.
Tom: That's a great question. Peter, let's just say that Peter has got a lease that says two adults and one dog, and all of a sudden he thinks that there's more adults and more pets living in the home. What would Peter's remedy be as a landlord?
Attorney Caleb Maggio: Tom, my advice would be don't rely on the provision that says it constitutes immediate termination. There is a statute that deals with this exact type of thing. It is called the seven-day notice to cure. What I would do if I was the landlord here is I would give a seven-day notice to cure to the tenant. What that is, it's a written document delivered to the tenant that says, "You are non-compliant with this lease provision because you have these additional people living here, you have seven days to fix that." If they don't fix it within the seven days, then the lease will be considered legally terminated and you can evict on that basis.
If they do fix it within the seven days, then your problem's solved for the time being. Imagine a scenario where they get rid of the additional person for a day or two, and then a week down the road again they move back in. What do you do? You don't want to give another seven-day notice. In that scenario, actually, you can immediately declare the lease terminated because you already did the seven-day notice once, they engaged in the non-compliance a second time. That is the safe harbor for the landlord.
Tom: Hey Peter, just out of curiosity, I'm just asking how would you know if somebody else is living there? Are you monitoring how many--
Peter: That is a good question. How would I prove that? The vehicle is there day and night and it's a duplex, so the neighbor hears all the noise and disruption and arguing that's going on and this guy is living there and they're having trouble. There's also an additional child that was observed by the neighbor. Between that and my own observations, we're pretty sure [chuckles] that this guy is living there.
Tom: I agree with you. Caleb, can Peter be sure enough to say, "Okay, I believe somebody else is living there because I see a 2014 Ford Toyota Prius parked there 24/7, that's how I know somebody's there or the neighbor sees somebody," Is that the kind of evidence that Peter can rely on?
Caleb: That's a good place to start, Tom. Ultimately what's going to happen if you give the seven-day notice to cure, if you have to asiut to evict and they contest that he wasn't living there is number one, you're going to subpoena that neighbor to come and testify and say, "This person's always here." Number two, a good thing to do is to run the tag on the car in some sort of database and see who the owner is because if the owner is not the tenant who you're renting to, then that's another great evidence. "Hey, look, this car's here day and night, it is owned by X individual." Those are the two big pieces of evidence I'd bring into the courtroom for you based on what you're telling me.
Tom: Would you want Peter to take photographs of that car sitting in the driveway at all hours of the day?
Caleb: Absolutely, Tom.
Tom: Peter, have we answered your question for you?
Peter: Just one more. After the seven-day notice to cure is submitted, what if the party says, "I'm just going to stay here." What do I file then? What's the next step? It's declared terminated, my agreement would have been terminated but then what do I do? What action do I take to get it enforced, to get an eviction enforced?
Caleb: Unfortunately, if they don't leave voluntarily, what you have to do is file an actual eviction complaint with the court. That basis for that complaint is the lease has now been terminated and these individuals are still here. You're going to win on that lawsuit if the lease is terminated but it's going to take you three weeks to three months depending on what county you're in, how busy the courts are. Your remedy would be to enforce the termination with an eviction.
Tom: Peter, great call. Thanks so much for bringing that to our attention. Thank you for calling today. Let's go to
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