Tenant-At-Will?

Hi,

I am in the process of screening a potential tenant opportunity and have a two poeple I am considering that are friends (not my friens) to move in together.

While doing the background check and talking to references, one of them checks out farily well, while the other has pretty bad credit but seems to check out OK otherwise.

I am thinking of offering them a tenant at will agreement and wanted to know if there was any benefit to just having an agreement with the one I feel more confident in, do I definately want both listed on the same agreement, or lastly can I offer them two separate agreement (or would that be subleting which I understand is not legal in MA)?

THank you for your time and thoughts in advance.

I wouldn't offer an agreement at all if one has poor credit. The reason is, what if they fight, the good tenant moves out, and leaves you with the bad tenant with poor credit? You won't get your rent, you won't be able to get any money if you get a court judgement against this person (what's one more bad strike on his credit)? Not a good idea.

If you intend to offer it to them, only offer an at-will (otherwise called month to month) tenancy to them. Make one written agreement with BOTH names on it, and make sure there is a clause that states they are "both jointly and severally liable for any obligations" of it. This puts them both on the hook so you can pursue one or both at your discretion if need be. You may be able to collect a judgement against the tenant with good credit. He would not want his credit ruined by an unpaid judgement.

Do not make seperate agreements with them. This defeats the purpose of being jointly and severally liable. If you do and one moves out, the other only owes you his or her half of the rent. You will be renting the place for only 1/2 the money until a new roommate can be found. You cannot collect the other half of the rent! Your agreement says they rent the place for only their half of the rent. If they run off other roommates or appliacnts with poor behavior, you are stuck with him/her for 1/2 the rent until you can terminate and evict them from the unit. Seperate agreements are not subletting, are not illegal, but are not a good idea unless you are renting out rooms.

If you list only the good credit tenant on the agreement, let's see what happens if they again have the fight. The good tenant moves out and now you are left with the bad occupant with whom you have NO agreement to pay rent at all! He has no agreement to pay rent, and you are stuck with a squattor that you have to evict.

The best course of action is a m2m agreement with both tenants. If they turn out to be undesirable, you give them a 30 days written notice to vacate and return the keys on the last day of the rental period. Both tenants must vacate this way. Each is responsible so it puts some peer pressure on each to behave and follow the agreement.

Also, accept only one rent check or MO for the entire rent amount, not seperate halves from each tenant. Doesn't matter who gives you the money, but only accept rent in full. If you accept seperate checks (or partial rent) it can be interpretted as seperate agreements by a court, and can impede your ability to evict since you have accepted some of the rent.

Thank you for such a great through response! =)

If I do have both name on the agreement, and one does decide to leave, does that automatically break the tenant-at-will agreement meaning they both need to leave or a new agreement would need to be reached between the tenant and I?

Also, lets say a tenant or I gave 30 day notice, when does that actually start? For example, lets say I was paid each month on the first, then a tenant asked to leave today (Jan 10th), does our agreement expire on Feb 10th, or March 1st?

Thanks again, I sincerely appreciate the thought and effort!!!

If one gives you notice to vacate on a m2m, you can immediately return notice that both tenants must vacate at that time and return the keys on the last day of the month. One tenant cannot vacate if you don't want them to. Since they are jointly liable, you can insist that they terminate together or not at all.

If you wish to allow the second tenant to stay, you notify him that the entire monthly rent will be due from him on the 1st of the next month and allow him to stay on a m2m basis under the same terms as the original agreement.

When a notice starts depends on your state laws. There are two types of state notification types. One is called a term state. In a term state, the notice and termination must coincide with the beginning and end of the term (month). Read through your state laws and see if there is any wording in the termination or notification section of the LL-Tenant statutes that say notice must be given on or before the beginning of the term, or that the notice must end at the end of the term. Term states notices won't begin in the middle of the month. The notice doesn't start until the next month if given in the middle. Also, many states do not have a 30 day notice for m2m tenants. Some tenants can give as little as 7 days notice to vacate in some states or must give as much as 60 days notice in other states. You need to know how much notice your state requires. But I digress from the question.

The other type of state notification is literal or day-for-day states. In this type of state, the days are counted literally from the date you receive notification. In literal day states, notice can be given and a rental term can end in mid month and you must prorate rent for the month for the tenant.