As a landlord living with room renters, what am I legally allowed to enforce during COVID?
I consider myself to be a nice, reasonable person who doesn’t want to make anyone’s time at my house not fun or non-accommodating. At the same time, it has become not fun and non-accommodating for me.
I am the owner of a home and I am renting 2 rooms for 6 months. So far, one of the tenants has had his girlfriend stay in my house for a week without paying. A few weeks later, she “surprised” him and showed up again and stayed for a total of 8 days. I am paying for utilities. I do not charge for water, gas, electric, etc. Now my second tenant is asking if his THREE FRIENDS can stay in my house for free for TWO WEEKS. He came down to one week after I expressed that I was not exactly happy with this.
Is it legal for me to charge his guests for staying here, since it was NOT in the lease agreement for them to have overnight guests for this long? They are using my utilities that I am paying for, and I agreed to pay for the people who are on the lease, but NOT any more than that. I do not like the idea of having to work around FIVE other people in my house during COVID none the less (even though we are all vaccinated, there is still differing public opinion on what is and is not okay). My parents are not vaccinated. Friends. Etc. Do I have the right to tell my tenants that they cannot have overnight guests for more than 2 nights, otherwise I will charge prorated rent? This is severely affecting my time in my own home and costing me money.
This is in the lease they signed: “
The premises shall not be occupied by any person other than those designated above as TENANT with the exception of guests following COVID-conscious restrictions (ie, no more than 2-3 guests per person). If LANDLORD allows for additional persons to occupy the premises, the rent shall be increased by $1300 for each such person. Any person staying 14 days cumulative or longer, shall be considered as occupying the premises in violation of this agreement.”
One of my tenants has had a guest stay for more than 14 days. Not consecutively, but during the course of 1 week, and then another 8 days already. It’s sunny now here in CA, and I don’t want my house to become an Airbnb for free. I could have had another roommate, and I asked if they would be comfortable, and THEY are the ones that told me that they wanted “as little people as possible.”
Thank you, Donnie Porko! The number of days one of the tenants has had a guest stay so far is 15. I will start documenting the days guests stay.
I didn’t originally charge for utilities just to be nice. (I know. Stupid). I’m regretting it.
We allowed GUESTS in the lease... not weekly nights stays. My house isn’t meant to be a hotel and I asked them if they would be ok if I rented another room out and they said “the less people the better” so I didn’t. Weekly stays here routinely like it’s been is becoming a tenant situation I’ll allow 2 nights staying over but a WEEK in my space is not ok.
Also in the lease it says 14 days CUMULATIVE. they’ve already maxed that.