Does person paying half of rent, have to be on rental agreement
We’ve been renting an apartment for 12 years and there are 5 people living here. My mother is 48, my brother is 23, his girlfriend is 23, their daughter is 2, and I am 19. We’ve been having some problems with the apartment manager saying that all of us have to be included in the rental agreement. My question is, do they have the right to check our credit? For example, my brother’s girlfriend has been living with us for more than a year, and has been paying half of the rent. They just recently checked her credit to realize it was bad and is now being told to move out, if she is not put on the agreement. Do they have the right to do this? Does she have to be on the agreement?
Re: Does person paying half of rent, have to be on rental agreement
Renting someone’s property is a matter of private agreement. The prospective tenant can require the landlord to do whatever the prospective tenant can get away with asking for, such as demanding that the rooms be painted chartreuse and fuchsia. The landlord will probably say no, but who knows? Or, the landlord can require that the rent be paid every Tuesday, in nickels and dimes. The tenant will probably say no, but who knows? If landlord and tenant can’t agree, tenant will rent somewhere else, and landlord will look for other tenants.
It’s the same with whether everyone has to sign the rental agreement. The landlord has the right to demand it, and the tenant can then say yes or no. If the answer is no, at the end of the notice period (or the term of the lease, if there is one), the tenant will be moving on. It works both ways, of course; the tenants could say, for example, either give us new carpets or we’ll move.
What I’m trying to say is that it’s a free country, more or less, and landlords and tenants are free to negotiate. Either party can make unreasonable demands as well as reasonable requests upon the other.
There are a few limitations on the freedom of landlords and tenants to bargain for their own terms. Landlords can’t discriminate based on race, religion, age (in most cases), sexual preference, etc.; they can’t demand excessive deposits, can’t demand waivers of liability for their own negligence, and a few other things. Neither tenants or landlords can “break” leases without liability. Other than that, the deal between a landlord and a temant is pretty much whatever the two parties can negotiate.
Bryan Whipple
Bryan R. R. Whipple, Attorney at Law
P O Box 318
Tomales, CA 94971-0318