A house on my street is a rental home. The owner had a long term tenant who always paid on time and was an agreeable guy. It seemed like a good situation.
However, every few months I would
see moving trucks parked in front. I
wondered if the tenant was moving out, but sure enough, days later I would
still see his human size dog running out his front door (as I would shield my
2-year old son from his “affections”). The
tenant hadn’t gone anywhere.
So what was going on?
The tenant was a serial
subletter. He would rent out rooms to
strangers. It seemed like a good way to
make extra cash being that he travelled a lot for work and lived alone (besides
the aforementioned gigantic dog).
But something went really wrong
recently. The tenant didn’t click with
the newest subletter and they got in a physical altercation due to undone
housework. His dog attacked the
subletter (poor guy!) protecting his owner and the subletter needed an
ambulance.
An ambulance, several police officers
and animal control showed up at the house and the subletter wound up getting a
restraining order against the tenant.
Now the tenant was not allowed to go to his rental home. I had a new neighbor, and not one who was
actually on a lease. However, due to the
legal system, he had rights to the house and the tenant was essentially
homeless because of the restraining order.
It was a mess for the owner. The subletter had to be evicted (which took a
month or two) and it left the owner out thousands of dollars.
So, is subletting evil?
Generally-speaking, yes, I
wouldn’t recommend it. However, if done
properly, it can work well to keep a house occupied.
The two ways to avoid subletting
bloodletting:
- Be involved. If a tenant wants a subletter (and this is applicable for any new home occupant), a rental application needs to be run. Owners need to know exactly who is going to be living in their rental home.
- The new occupant needs to be on a lease and the security deposit situation needs to be addressed (who has rights to it now?).
As a landlord, it’s easier to
just let tenants do their thing as long as rent is coming in (like in this
instance where it happened for years without incident), however it can come
back to bite (pun intended).
As a Charlotte property
manager for many years, we’ve picked up many good tenants from allowing
tenants to add additional occupants to their lease. However, we’ve never budged on the two
criteria above.
Don’t let subletting turn into a
mess. Control the situation, run a
rental application, and (if approved) get them on a lease!
Happy Landlording!
Brett Furniss is a property manager at BDF Realty (Charlotte Residential
Property Management), the trusted real estate advisor for Charlotte
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