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Hello! I am renting a single family 3 bedroom home with my fiancee and live there with our daughter. My mom came over from abroad to help me taking care of my kid. She is going to stay with us for 6 months(the lenght of her tourist visa). There is no provision in our lease saying anything about limitations of overnight staying guests or obtaining any approval from the landlord. My landlord found out(asking the neighbors about us) my Mom is living here already a month and send me a letter that she wants her leave within 7 days, or she is going to terminate the lease and keep our security deposit...Does she have any rights to do this?
6 Months is NOT a Visit! YOU should have asked the LL She may have allowed this once she did checks on your mom & possibly raised the rent for another person. But now Well talk to her & start your MOVE! BTW 14 days in a month is what Most LL consider Guest.
Depends on what your lease says. My leases have two separate parts that cover this. The first is a section that names all tenants, different than naming the lease holders. The other section limits guest stays. The first section is what your landlord is going to use to evict you. You might have had good intentions and aren't a bad person but you are in breach of contract and should have run this by your landlord first. Talk to your landlord and work something out.
My lease says a guest is no more than 14 days in 6 months. What I always verbally tell my tenants is that I'm not at their house with a clicker, counting how many days someone stays, but if someone is going to stay for 3 months, we need to know about it, and get emergency contact information on any additional adults, and it might mean more rent and/or more deposit.
If someone is staying for 6 months, they are an occupant. All occupants must be listed on the lease. Even if the lease doesn't specifically address this, I would guess that state law does. I assume your lease does say 2 adults and 1 child. That is who is allowed to live there.
The landlord is totally in their rights to do this. I wouldn't have had a problem with a tenant who applied this way. 4 occupants in a 3 bedroom home is fine. But not if the tenant lies about the occupants on the application and/or lease. (Note: I wouldn't just kick the extra person out, I'd serve notice to vacate. My application and lease say that if the tenant is found at any time to have lied on the application, it is grounds for immediate termination of the lease.) But if the lease doesn't say that, then they have to give you a notice to remedy, which is likely what the 7 day notice is.
I also suggest that you see if you can work something out with the landlord. But go into the conversation knowing that you are the one in the wrong, and have no bargaining strength. If the agreement is that your rent is increased and you have to pay more deposit, that might be what you need to do. That would be a very normal and customary requirement for additional occupants.
If you had cleared that with your landlord beforehand, you would not have a problem.
Yes, your landlord can order your mother out and can probably evict you if you don't find another place for your mother. Six months is not a visitor. Six months is living there and since she is not on the lease, she can't live there if the landlord doesn't want her there.
You could have saved yourself a lot of trouble with a simple phone call before your mother bought her plane ticket. Maybe you can still work it out with the landlord, maybe by paying additional rent and showing proof that she will be leaving in six months.
My landlord found out(asking the neighbors about us) my Mom is living here already a month and send me a letter that she wants her leave within 7 days, or she is going to terminate the lease and keep our security deposit...Does she have any rights to do this?
Depends.
Are you on a term lease or a month to month? If you are month to month, they can terminate the lease with proper notice. If you are on term lease, you first look to the lease for direction.
If your lease has no provisions about visitors, extended stays, or occupancy limits, you next look toy your state laws.
Does your state laws establish and right to have, or prohibitions against, or any requirements for notification regardless if in the ease or not? If you can't find anything related to state law, you next turn to case law.
Case law is where a court with jurisdiction has ruled on the issue. If there is nothing in case law to prohibit you from having an extended guest, you look to associated guidelines.
Associated guidelines are items such as other laws or regulations that have a say in this matter such as a ADA, or elder care laws.
You will need to do some leg work quickly or hire an attorney (or seek free legal help) to understand exactly where you stand based on the above. This is the legal steps. However, odds are in may be simpler to just have her stay elsewhere or negotiate some additional rent during that period versus fighting this.
Based on all these posts about guests, I went through and checked my zillion page lease. I get 10 consecutive days of a guest, and no more than 20 non-consecutive days within a 12month period. Good thing I checked- a 2 week visit would put me out of compliance!
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