Tenant Applicants - Would both of these people be named on the lease?

[TerryF]

This is the situation. An unmarried couple in their late 30`s applied to rent one of our properties. The details on each are:

She:
- long time stable job with fairly high income which I have confirmed.
- good reference from her previous landlord where she was a tenant for 3 years.
- good credit report.

He:
- on a permanent disability income from WCB. Caseworker is on vacation until the 17th so unable to confirm with her. The replacement caseworker has my number and a message to contact me but so far has not. I`ll give that another day as I just left the message earlier today.

- credit history shows almost nothing. eg. No trade lines are open and probably haven`t been for 5 -7 years which means he has had no loans or credit cards that are tracked by the bureau for at least that time. What does show up are two accounts in collections from 2007 & 2008 totalling approx. $3000. There is nothing else in the report.

The couple has lived together for the last year. I`ve left 2 messages for their current landlord to contact me, as well as his previous landlord, and so far I have not had a call back. I do intend to persist until I do hear from them.

My original hunch is that they would make great tenants and look after the place. If they were married, or if both were employed and had good credit, I`d name both of them on the lease. But with the information I have now (and don`t have), I`m wondering if I should just put her on the lease and give her permission to have him there as a roommate. She is the one with the good credit history which he doesn`t have.

If they don`t stay together for any reason, and she moves out, am I better off to just have her on the lease so I can easily ask him to leave if he winds up not being the greatest tenant without her there with him?

I`m not thinking this will happen but just thinking that I should only name the person on the lease with the good income and credit rating.

Any comments?

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

[quote name=`TerryF` date=`Aug 5 2009, 04:11 PM` post=`63329`]
This is the situation. An unmarried couple in their late 30`s applied to rent one of our properties. The details on each are:

She:
- long time stable job with fairly high income which I have confirmed.
- good reference from her previous landlord where she was a tenant for 3 years.
- good credit report.

He:
- on a permanent disability income from WCB. Caseworker is on vacation until the 17th so unable to confirm with her. The replacement caseworker has my number and a message to contact me but so far has not. I`ll give that another day as I just left the message earlier today.

- credit history shows almost nothing. eg. No trade lines are open and probably haven`t been for 5 -7 years which means he has had no loans or credit cards that are tracked by the bureau for at least that time. What does show up are two accounts in collections from 2007 & 2008 totalling approx. $3000. There is nothing else in the report.



The couple has lived together for the last year. I`ve left 2 messages for their current landlord to contact me, as well as his previous landlord, and so far I have not had a call back. I do intend to persist until I do hear from them.

My original hunch is that they would make great tenants and look after the place. If they were married, or if both were employed and had good credit, I`d name both of them on the lease. But with the information I have now (and don`t have), I`m wondering if I should just put her on the lease and give her permission to have him there as a roommate. She is the one with the good credit history which he doesn`t have.

If they don`t stay together for any reason, and she moves out, am I better off to just have her on the lease so I can easily ask him to leave if he winds up not being the greatest tenant without her there with him?

I`m not thinking this will happen but just thinking that I should only name the person on the lease with the good income and credit rating.

Any comments?

Thanks


I`m not sure where you are investing but I find there can be different rules in different areas regarding who is on the lease and who isn`t. In Ontario, regardless if they are on the lease are not, the person can stay. For instance, if she gets rid of this boyfriend and another moves in, we are stuck with the new guy.

To cover ourselves, everyone who is over 18 and working is to go on the lease including the adult children. If they are in school, we don`t worry about it. We also ensure that everyone checks out. We do full checks on everyone so I would suggest you wait till you speak to the current and old landlord and speak with the worker to verify income for him. I have a few tenants on assiistance and never have a problem but we always make sure that it is consistant and the length of the assistance, and verify what it is based on. Some assistance can be temporary, so you want to make sure that it won`t go away in 6 months.

Just as an aside, we mention to all our tenants that if anyone new moves in, such as a brother or new partner, that they need to go through the approval process and sign the lease. We haven`t had any issues with this yet as our tenants have always called us to let us know about the changes in arrangments. We create this through inspections, regular communication and documentation.

I`m glad they have lived together for a least a year but verify this with the current landlord. We avoid tenants that have never lived together before as this could be a short-term arrangement.

Let me know if I can help further. Good luck.
Carol Garrett

 

[PaulPoulsen]

I`d want both on the lease. That way if one bails or turns out to be a flake, the other tenant is still responsible for the full rent.

We had a similar situation on a condo in Edmonton. She had good credit, a good job reference and a great reference from her landlord. He was on some kind of government program because of a disability. We put them both on lease.

A month goes by and the second rent cheque bounces. We call the suite and no one will return our call. We call her workplace to try and catch her there and we`re told that she just up and quit. We call the previous landlord to see if she has additional contact info for us. She admits she`s not the landlord, just a previous roommate that didn`t like the living arrangement and wanted her (our tenant) out. We finally reach the female tenant`s mother and explain there`s been an emergency and we need to reach her daughter. She gives us a cell phone number and our tenant is surprised to hear that we`ve tracked her down. She tells us that she doesn`t really live in the suite and was just helping out her friend (the guy on disability) because he couldn`t have qualified on his own and she doesn`t think she should be responsible for his missed rent. We explain that she signed a document stating otherwise and whether she`s living there or not, she`s responsible for the rent. That saved our butts. The male tenant could avoid us but couldn`t avoid her. Still, rent was late on a number of other occasions and we decided not to renew the lease when it came due at the end of six months.

So long story short, every tenant over 18 goes on our leases.

 

[ShannonMurree]

The people whom are names on the lease are financially obligated. I ask people this up front whom they want on the lease. At least if they ever default or something ever goes to small claims, legally you can file an Execution against both if that`s how everything was filed and you get the judgement. However, if you only put one person on the lease, only that individual is financially obligated. He/she also has the legal right to kick out whomever they wish and can be constituted as a "roommate".

If he`s on Disability, does that mean shelter costs can be paid to you directly? They should have a shelter portion. If at least one person has good credit, put both on the lease and note to the second individual it`s important to pay on time because it`s helping him to re-establish good credit. Some sort of incentive.

Definitely be persistent on the references and verification.

 

[TerryF]

Thanks! These are all very helpful responses.

This has been a difficult process confirming their information. One big concern is the current landlord will not call me back! I asked the prospective tenants for an email and got that. So sent off a message to current landlord by email marked urgent. So far nothing back. We feel we MUST talk to the current landlord before accepting them. They have a very well behaved dog according to them which I am inclined to believe, but I need confirmation from the landlord, as well as confirmation that despite her high income, there have been no issues with the rent collection.

If the current landlord does not contact me despite the applicants advising him a few days ago to expect my call (they spoke with him directly), me calling and leaving two messages over the last 3 days, and now leaving an urgent email, then I will have to conclude that he doesn`t want to comment for whatever reason (probably not a good one either).

 

[PaulPoulsen]

If you`re high on these tenants, let them know that the only thing standing between them and an approval is a reference from the landlord. Hopefully that`ll motivate them to chase after the landlord and spare you the aggravation.