Renting out House to family - other couple living there?

cailinoBAC

Just rented out my house for the first time and the couple (with young child) moved in last week. They are on rent allowance and there was a lot of going back and forth about when they would be moving in and how much of a deposit they would be paying up front.
Although it's my first time renting out the full house, I had been renting out rooms for almost 5 years before I moved away. Usually I would end up renting out rooms to foreigners and never had any problems with any of them and made a few friends along the way. Until the last girl (a Brazilian), who was a complete psycho and led to me getting to know my local gardai for the first time due to her making certain accusations about my neighbours. Around the same time I also had to tell my neighbours that I'd be moving abroad and would have to look for tenants but that I would keep them informed and be careful about who I took in.
So, this woman is also Brazilian, but I wasn't going to tar a whole nation with the one brush. As she and her partner (who is Portuguese) are on rent allowance I couldn't check work reference, but I got a good reference from their previous landlord. I couldn't meet them myself but my sister and my parents have both met them and said they seemed fine. I'm not exactly sure what other checks you can do when someone is on rent allowance?
Anyway,my parents were skyping me tonight, it turns out she is pregnant again and she told my parents that her mother will be coming over to live with them for a while around the time she gives birth (6/7 months away) and would it be ok for them to buy a double bed for one of the rooms (and dismantle the two single beds that are there and put them up in the attic). That seems fair enough to me, but then in the middle of the conversation, the neighbour rang my Mam for a chat and basically is saying that there is another couple living there.
I'm not comfortable with this. For her Mum, or some other family to be staying over is one thing, but if another couple are actually living there, isn't that kind of subletting? But then again, they're only there a week, maybe the other couple are only there for a few days. Obviously I can't tell my tenants not to have guests...I can't just ignore it anyway, if the neighbours are asking about it. I feel really bad about what happened earlier in the year so I want to avoid trouble, but I also can't just not rent the house out because of that. I wonder if the neighbours would be as wary if the tenants were Irish, or if they know that she's Brazilian and they're worried about deja vu.
Anyway, I would like to make it clear to my tenants that I don't want another couple living there. Is that reasonable? But at the same time, they're only there a week, I don't want to start making accusations straight away. I have to ask them for some information in order to complete the prtb registration so I might just ask in a way that implies this and then ask my parents to say it to them if we hear any more from the neighbours.
Any thoughts?

the_syco

cailinoBAC wrote: »

Just rented out my house for the first time and the couple (with young child) moved in last week. They are on rent allowance [THE TRUTH?]

<snip>

Anyway,my parents were skyping me tonight, it turns out she is pregnant again [THE SOB STORY] and she told my parents that her mother will be coming over to live with them for a while around the time she gives birth (6/7 months away) and would it be ok for them to buy a double bed for one of the rooms (and dismantle the two single beds that are there and put them up in the attic)[THE LIE]. That seems fair enough to me, but then in the middle of the conversation, the neighbour rang my Mam for a chat and basically is saying that there is another couple living there.[THE CON]

After reading your post, I'm feeling cynical. The top part is probably true. The sob story is to appeal to your heart so you don't throw them out, the lie leads to the con. The mother is coming over, so they get rid of the single bed? WTF? More like, they have a couple, and want to put a double bed in there instead of two singles. The con is, they're on rent allowance. They're subletting to the couple to get money, to pay the remainder of the rent, and have a bit on the side.

Sounds dodgy as hell. And as the couple moved in so quickly, I'm thinking that they were in the shadows waiting to move in.

amdublin

But do you really care who lives there as long as the place is kept in good condition and the rent is paid????

If you do (and I wouldn't as long as the above was fulfilled):
What does it say in your lease about subletting?
I suggest you ring your tenants and advise them that you have seen other people entering the house and that they are not to sub-let. Advise them if they continue to sublet or have another couple staying there you will be moving to eviction proceedures.

You are going to lose these tenants over this. (Whether you evict them or they move). It is also going to take a lot of time and energy and money (factor in month with no rent while trying to get new tenants).

Is this what you want?

Tigger

Do ye have a lease? Dies it allow sublets and are the tenants listed on the lease

D3PO

sounds like bad new to me. Id be giving them notice now.

apart from them scamming the welfare system, if your aware and turn a blind eye your also implicated in this fraud.

tell them to f off now

How Strange

Most leases stipulate no sub letting so if that's the case they are in breach.

If they are subletting then they are engaging in welfare fraud and, as D3PO said, if you've been made aware then you are condoning that.

If the family are subletting then they are making money out if your property.

Even if you are ok with the subletting then consider your property will
undergo a lot more wear and tear so repairs and renovations will be needed more often.

I think you're probably very trust worthy and a little bit gullible. What's wrong with her mother sleeping in a single bed? I'd definitely say no to that request. Why would you spend more money on a new bed when you gave already provided 2 hood ones.

I'd advise you to find out straight away what's going on in that house. I've done property management and I've seen what happens when nice trusting people become landlords but don't want to deal with the less pleasant side such as tricky tenants.

Raskolnikov

amdublin wrote: »

But do you really care who lives there as long as the place is kept in good condition and the rent is paid????

If you do (and I wouldn't as long as the above was fulfilled):
What does it say in your lease about subletting?
I suggest you ring your tenants and advise them that you have seen other people entering the house and that they are not to sub-let. Advise them if they continue to sublet or have another couple staying there you will be moving to eviction proceedures.

You are going to lose these tenants over this. (Whether you evict them or they move). It is also going to take a lot of time and energy and money (factor in month with no rent while trying to get new tenants).

Is this what you want?

It's one thing to have 3 people living in a house, it's quite another to have 7 (I think that will be the final number!). There will be much more damage/wear and tear on the property.

cailinoBAC

Thanks for the replies. I have to have a look at the lease again. I got a standard lease that seemed to cover everything, so probably mentions that too. Unfortunately I can't tell them that I saw the other people myself because I'm abroad, but my parents are only one town away so they can keep tabs.
I know there are always threads on here about nastly landlords not accepting rent allowance, but it's my own home that I'm hoping to come back to in a few years time and I've heard first hand too many bad stories so I had advertised 'no rent allowance'. However, probably due to oversupply I wasn't getting a whole lot of response and was thinking of changing it, but this couple contacted me despite this and after a lot of thought and talk we decided to go ahead.
I think I'm just going to ask them directly if there are other people living there and if there are, either they need to move out or everybody needs to move out. The house has been empty since I left so I can get by without any tenants for some time, it's just not easy.

CuppaCocoa

Hmmm, sounds like the couple we had living on our street also Brazilian/Portuguese!:rolleyes: They were renting, had a small child. Soon after they moved in so did their friends. Lots of them. Then came the Mother and the teenage sister :rolleyes:. They trashed the house and the owner couldn't get rid of them. They wouldn't open the door to him. They had loud parties and even louder fights and made life hell for their neighbours. He eventually got rid of them and sold the house and now we're back to normality!.

biko

You could ask for a second lease to be signed up with the second couple and get a second deposit.

cailinoBAC

Ahem Lily, whereabouts are you living?
Well I've sent them a text asking them straight out.
I checked the lease and definitely says that nobody else should be living there without my permission, and also no paying guests/subletting.
Had a missed call and I'll call back in a bit. Usually any time I'd send a text there'd be about 5 missed calls and a few voicemails. If they claim somebody is staying with them just for a few nights I'll let the neighbours know and see if they're still there next week.
At least haven't heard anything about wild parties yet.