As a rental property owner, your livelihood depends on trusting your treasured Winston-Salem rental property to a tenant you know and have thoroughly screened. Therefore, it can be a major problem if your tenant chooses to sublet the rental house – in particular, if they do so without your knowledge or permission. Setting the terms of your tenant’s stay in your rental home starts with evident and clear language in the lease. If you already have your subletting policy in writing and your tenant violates it, here is some specific advice you’ll need to handle the situation like a pro.
Gather Evidence
If you are afraid your tenant might be subletting your property without permission, your first move should be to confirm your suspicions. It’s in all likelihood that the new “tenant” is not subletting but rather house-sitting or staying at the property for some reason. You can embark by interviewing both your original tenant and the person in the house and documenting their reactions, also when your conversation occurred and any other evidence you may have noticed.
You may be further required to talk to the neighbors, or anyone else you think may have information as regards the situation happening. If your tenant is subletting your rental through a platform like Airbnb, as an example, you can search for your property on the app and utilize what you actually see and detect as evidence of the lease violation.
Give Notice of Lease Violation
If your research does affirm that your tenant is subletting, and your lease specifically states that subletting is not allowed, you’ll need to notify your tenant that they have violated their lease. Add in any other violations during your research that you may have noticed, primarily if the person subletting is not upholding the lease terms.
Irrespective of who is living in the rental and their agreement with your tenant, your tenant is still responsible for upholding their lease agreement. In many cases, it is good to give your tenant time (such as 30 days) to rectify the situation and go back to compliance with their lease. You will then need to follow through once that time has gone by to confirm whether the subletting tenant is gone or not.
Take Legal Action, If Needed
Should your tenant refuse to comply with your request to get rid of the person subletting the property, your subsequent step may be to go through the eviction process. Just be certain to examine your state and local laws and follow all of the statutes and rules to the letter.
With a subletting tenant complicating the situation in this instance, you need to know what your rights are, whether or not you can legally remove the subletting tenant, and what measures you’ll need to take to make it happen. Depending on where you live, you may need to evict both your tenant and the subletting tenant before you can retrieve full rights and access to your rental property.
Conclusively, your legal recourse will definitely depend upon both where your property is located and the language in your lease. If your lease does not have clear language signifying your policy on subletting, that is something you can make right and correct effortlessly. The best course of action is just stopping it before it develops when it comes to preventing subletting.
While doing research on every potential income property is a lot of work, Real Property Management of the Triad can help lighten your load. We offer free rental property analyses for investors, which can help you more easily identify whether the income property you want to buy is a profitable option. Contact us online or call us at 336-355-6677 or 336-777-7444 to learn more!
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