As a rental property owner, your livelihood depends on trusting your highly valued Garland rental property to a tenant you know and have carefully screened. That’s exactly why, it can be a big problem if your tenant is subletting the rental house – absolutely if they do so without your knowledge or permission. Setting the terms of your tenant’s stay in your rental home begins with absolute and clear language in the lease. If you already have your subletting policy in writing and your tenant violates it, here are various guidelines you’ll need in order to handle the situation like a pro.
Gather Evidence
If you are seriously suspicious your tenant might be subletting your property without permission, your first course of action should be to confirm your suspicions. It might just be that the new “tenant” is not subletting but rather house-sitting or staying at the property for other reasons. You can actually start by interviewing both your original tenant and the person in the house and documenting their responses, along with when your conversation occurred and any other evidence you may have noticed.
You may, in like manner, have to talk to the neighbors, or anyone else you think may have information as regards the case. If your tenant is subletting your rental through a platform like Airbnb, as for instance, you may in fact be able to search for your property on the app and apply what you know and find out as evidence of the lease violation.
Give Notice of Lease Violation
If your research does justify 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 your research may have spotted, in particular, if the person subletting is not upholding the lease terms.
Heedless 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 situations, it is appropriate to give your tenant time (such as 30 days) to rectify the situation and resume in compliance with their lease. You will then need to check it out again once time has gone by to see 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 next possible procedure may be to start the eviction process. Just make it a point to go over your state and local laws and follow all of the statutes and rules to the letter.
With a subletting tenant complicating the given situation, you need to know what your rights are, whether or not you can legally remove the subletting tenant, and what strategies you’ll need to take in this regard. On the basis of where you live, you may have to evict both your tenant and the subletting tenant before you can recover full rights and access to your rental property.
Lastly, your legal recourse will largely depend on both where your property is located and the language in your lease. If your lease does not have clear language specifying your policy on subletting, that is something you must iron out rapidly. The best course of action is merely to stop it before it takes place when it comes to preventing subletting.
If you find yourself dealing with a subletting tenant, know that you don’t have to confront it all alone. The property management professionals at Real Property Management Focus have the experience and legal knowledge to steer you through any lease violation cases, getting you back to business as usual as quickly and as trouble-free as possible. Learn more about what we can do for property owners like you by contacting us online or calling us at 469-820-0088.
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