If you are moving in with someone who isn’t on the lease, you might ask whether he can live with you or not?
In many situations, when you sign a lease agreement with the landlord, you are not the only one to inhabit the rental property. You may have to live with your parents, children or other dependents. Perhaps, your relatives or friends may visit you for some time.
The question is whether all of them have to sign the agreement for staying with you or is it not necessary? And what is the condition for someone staying permanently with you or staying only for the time being?
The answer is neither a Yes or No. Someone to be on the lease is based on specific criteria, but you can still get confused about the situation. So, stay tuned to understand better.
Contents
Who can live with you without being on the lease?
The duration of a person’s stay and your relationship with him decides whether to put someone on lease or not.
Occupants
If you are moving in with dependents like children, parents, partners, or someone who will live with you for the long term, you have to put their names on the lease because a landlord may inquire about the number of people living with you.
If the dependents are not liable to pay any rent or fulfill other responsibilities mentioned on the lease, you should mention them as occupants, but there is no need for their signatures on it.
Since your partner, girlfriend, or boyfriend is an adult; you can put him on lease as a co-tenant. If you and your partner are going to divide the expenses, putting your partner as a co-tenant is a better option than an occupant.
Tenants
If you are moving into a rented unit with another person as your roommate, flatmate, or co-tenant, they have to register themselves on the lease as tenants, and all of them will be obliged to pay the rent to the landlord.
Guests
If someone is staying with you only for some days (fixed number of days), they are considered guests, and there is no need to put them on lease.
Usually, the number of days ranges from 3 to 15 days in which they can live in the rented unit without being on the lease.
➡LEARN MORE: How to Add a Cosigner to a Lease?
Are children needed to be on the lease?
If you have a child or children who will live with you in the rented unit, there is no need to put them on.
According to US law, the child is someone under the age of 18. You can put them in the lease as occupants, but there is no legal requirement for that too.
As occupants, children are not liable to any financial responsibility. Additionally, the landlord cannot use the child’s actions as a ground to evict the tenant.
What can you do when your child turns 18 in a rented house?
If your child turns 18 during the lease period, there is no need to take any prompt action. You can wait until the period is over and you are renewing it.
While renewing, you can put your children on the lease as a co-tenant. After 18, they are obligated to live by the rules and regulations of the rented house. If a child is not put on the lease, it is difficult to enforce rules on him effectively.
Also, an adult shouldn’t be the sole responsibility of parents. Even if you are paying the rent, putting your child on lease creates a sense of responsibility in an adult child.
In some conditions, the landlord may demand to put your adult child’s name as a co-tenant so that he can run a background check and keep the records of the adult landlords.
Writer and content creator interested in Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Jobs and landlord issues. I have a bachelor’s degree in Communication from the Andrés Bello Catholic University, VE, and I also studied at Chatham University, USA. In this blog I write and collect information of interest around agreements, property and mortgage.