Adding Tenant To Existing Lease Agreement!
Hello All,
I have a current lease with three related adult tenants. One of the tenants (the mother) is moving out and the tenants want to remove her from the lease and get another cousin to move in to take her place. The tenants already have a dog and the proposed tenant has a Chihuahua.
What are your thoughts on this kind of transaction? I am pleased that the tenants were upfront enough to come to me with this request and I am inclined to accept the change. However, I want to charge the new tenant a non-refundable pet fee for bringing in a new pet. Is there any merit to this? Or does the pet fee I charged the original tenants cover this new pet as well? What would be a reasonable pet deposit amount? Is there anything I should be wary of?
On the other hand, if I refuse and the tenants do not get the help from the extra tenant, I am afraid that they may fall behind in their rent payments forcing me to go through the hassle of foreclosure.
Thanks in advance for your help.
JS.
P.S. Of course I will do full screening on the proposed tenant before accepting them on the lease.
I would consider having the three new tennts sign a new lease with a new security deposit and new pet deposits. then have the existing three tenants sign a termination of lease and refund their security deposit - made out to all three.
Other wise, you could have a lease addendeum that all three sign to get the one person off the lease. Have them acknowledge the receipt of the security deposit. Then have another addendeum Where the new person is added to the lease, and all three sign, with the new security deposit and the new pet depsotis.