As a rental property owner, your livelihood relies on trustworthy tenants for your Leander rental property — tenants you have undoubtedly screened. It is because of this that things can become problematic when tenants decide to sublet the rental house without your permission or knowledge. Setting the terms of your tenant’s stay in your rental home starts with clear language in the lease. If you find yourself with a tenant who violates the already well-articulated subletting policy, here’s how you can handle that.
Gather Evidence
If it seems that your tenant is subletting your property without permission, your first step should be to confirm your suspicions. It may very well be that the new “tenant” is just house-sitting the property and not subletting. It would be a wise idea to interview both tenants so that you can document their responses. This will allow you to gather evidence and use whatever you’ve gathered to make an informed conclusion and decision.
Talk to your neighbors, too — see what they have to say about the situation in question. If your tenant is using Airbnb to sublet your rental, you can try searching for your property on the app as evidence to show a violation of the lease.
Give Notice of Lease Violation
If all of this research leads to confirming that your tenant really is subletting despite the lease specifically stating against it, you have to inform your tenant that they violated the lease. Include all other violations in your research so that it’s even more evident that the tenant who is subletting is not following through on the terms of the lease.
Regardless of who is living in the rental, even if they have an agreement with your tenant, it is still your tenant who is responsible for upholding the lease agreement. So that the tenant can resolve the situation to comply with the lease, they are usually given time to do so in cases like this. Be sure to follow up when the time has passed, so that you can verify whether or not the subletting tenant has gone.
Take Legal Action, If Needed
If your tenant rejects your request to remove the subletting person from the property, you can then proceed with the eviction process. Make sure you go through your state and local laws so that you can follow all the statutes and rules thoroughly.
As if it’s not difficult enough to handle a subletting tenant, you also have to consider what your rights are, and how you can legally handle the subletting tenant without breaking any laws. Depending on your location, you might even have to evict both the tenant and the subletting tenant so that you can get back full rights and access to your rental property.
Your legal recourse is contingent on the location of your property, and the language of the policies in your lease. If your lease uses language that makes the policy of subletting sound ambiguous, you definitely have to clear that up. The best course of action is stopping it before it happens when it comes to preventing subletting.
Are you currently handling a situation with a subletting tenant? There are professionals that can help you. The property management professionals at Real Property Management Longhorn have the experience and legal knowledge to guide you through any lease violation situation, getting you back to business as usual as quickly and as painlessly as possible. Learn more about what we can do for property owners like you by contacting us online or calling us at 512-580-3099.
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