Lease with nothing specified about guest

[Crimsonsred]

Well to be honest I think my landlord is a bit greedy and I am a college student and an army vet so I know when I am getting screwed.

Alright so here is my problem. My girlfriend wants to move in with me but in the contract there is a 150 dollar fee the Landlord can charge which it sounded like the manager reluctantly got me a discount by talking to him but only if I paid in full and paid for 2 months outside my contract as well as leased for another year.

I have prepaid a full year at 380 a month due to a discount I recieved to pay for that full year the normal being 400. If I were to have started this contract with my girlfriend it would have been 450 discounted for the year. If I have her move in 6 months into the lease I am being charged tripple for what it normally would have cost her as she would have only paid 50 dollars and what ever discount it would be.

After reading the contract over many times, it seems as I have all the bargaining chips.

No where in my lease does it state how many guests I can have or any certain amount of time they can stay there. It only states that there can only be one person that occupies the premises.

My girlfriend lives legally an hour away. Therefore her staying over a couple weeks here and there should not be in violation of my lease nor should an extended amount of time be in violation of the lease as long as she legally lives at her other residence and she even plans to work mainly around the place where she legally resides.

I have always been a very law abiding citizen and was honest with the manager about my girlfriend possibly moving in. But because of the landlords greed and lack of a solid lease I see no problem in letting her stay over when ever she wants to.

My question is, is this technically legal as there is no common law on guests at an apartment complex?

To add on I have never had noise complaints or anyone complain about me in the apartment. I even could not live there during my first month I paid for due to it not being cleaned yet and said I was ok with it to build a good relation with the manager.

To end it, I am going to make a counter offer to make things as legal as possible where we instead pay the 6 months of the extra 50 dollars that we would have paid normally for a 6 month lease as well as a promising prospect for a future lease after said time and I also have referred another person to sign a separate lease with this complex. If this reasonable negotiation fails I will be fine with my girlfriend legally living at her parents and coming to visit me in two week stints or however long she wants to I suppose as there is nothing about a guest clause only the fact that I forfeit my lease and I will be charged if me or my guest or family goes into specific areas of this old building.

So basically are my terms on negotiation reasonable and secondly are there any common laws on tenants having guests over if not stated in the written contract?

as there was no oral contract about guests only about not having parties as in i'm guessing due to noise and even if there was I doubt it would stand up in court as it isn't on the written lease and I have a witness with me and she probably wouldn't remember if there was either as it was 6 months ago and there is nothing in the contract that says I agreed to any oral contract along with the written and orally I never saying I agree in a legal sense to anything outside the contract(besides most people can't even remember what they agreed to orally a week ago let alone 6 months).... sorry for the carrying on.

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Your post is a bit confusing but it sounds as if you received a discount of $20 a month if you prepaid for the entire year. That's not unusual.

Now you wish to add another tenant to a lease but do not want to pay the extra $150 a month rent for doing this, correct?

You can attempt to bargain with the landlord/management but there are several things you need to keep in mind; your name is the only one on the lease and thus the landlord/management must agree to add your girlfriends name to this.

In addition, it's often a bit vague on when a "guest" becomes a "tenant" but someone who stays two weeks or longer each month living in the unit is very likely to be seen as a "resident" as opposed to a guest who visits only infrequently. The concern is that these extra folks are adding more wear and tear to the unit.

The requirement for additional rent for increasing the number of folks living in a rental unit isn't all that unusual and has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that you're a student or an army vet.

Gail

 

[mightymoose]

It doesn't matter if she has a legal residence elsewhere. If she is staying with you for more than a couple days, and is staying over frequently, the landlord will consider her a resident and rightfully so. Two weeks is a retty significant chunk of time. Apply that over the year and it is 6 months.

In short- at the frequency and length of time that you indicate... your friend is hardly a "guest". The contract does indicate only one occupant... that is the part that is being violated.

 

[Crimsonsred]

Wait wait wait. So you are saying that the landlord has control of who can visit me and for how long without any clause in the contract? Wouldn't that violate my rights as a tenant.

Since I have paid for my living space arn't I allowed a guest. A contract is there to protect my rights as a tenant as well as the land lords rights, who has failed to make a good contract to begin with. It really is not unusual for someone in college to have their boyfriend or girlfriend frequently visit I don't think legally I could be prosecuted as their is no clause and at anytime she can go back home is she wanted to.

If they forced her to leave I'm sure I could sue for discrimination as they would have to implement a clause in the contract in order to do so and in doing that I could sue them for breaking contract.

Really where does the line begin or end. Is it alright for me to have 30 different people sleep over every night as opposed to one person every once in awhile.

Wear and tear isn't that what the deposit is for?

Sorry I am a bit perplexed with the responses as it dosn't seem like the "legal" information is unbiased. You both seem as if you are landlords or biased towards the landlord as it seems that the cold hard contract seems as it can be violated by the landlord. And In most cases a guest clause is usually worded as somewhere around over 14 days a month would be grounds to add as a tenant, but this landlord did not save himself the hassel of putting such clause in. Not only legally can I not be prosecuted but also I feel as it would be smart in the LandLords eyes to negotiate.

I have bought all I actually wanted, I am trying to be legal enough at letting my gf come down but really it dosn't matter since she lives an hour a way and I don't mind just seeing her every weekend with her comming down. Now on the landlords side he can either make 300 bucks extra plus possibly getting me to resign the lease and also a 95% chance to get a second good tenant that I have referred and could tell them otherwise not to. As opposed to a one time 900 dollars that i understand but the amount of time he wants it in and discount and overall terms of the argeement he stated seems like he thinks I am an idiot... They have me for another 6 months already and he wants the money paid in full in couple days in order for me to get 100 dollar discount but i also have to extend my lease two months... sounds like some shadey drug deal. In the end it's 0 dollars and allow my girlfriend to stay over whenever as opposed to receiving 3 good tenants and 5400 dollars.

I wish you to defend your answer as they were static and on no legal grounds the landlord could institute a special guest clause for me let alone for all tenants on the current contract.

On a side note I do not believe it is because I am a student or military please do not assume that Is why I think he is screwing me, the reason why is from what I've heard from the managers is that he is a bit of a bad landlord. I've lived here for 6 months and I only know the managers and have never seen the landlord so in noway does he have any prior knowledge to who i am just that he knows I paid in full and he thinks I'll do it again at a rediculous price, where the sensible thing would to be honor my contract as a separate 6 month contract beings these contracts are unbiased to the length of time of the contracts meaning if i signed a two year lease and wanted to add someone he could charge 150 dollars but should he is the question as opposed to someone moving in for a couple months at the end of a 6 month lease.

I have to say the responses so far turn a blind eye that the CONTRACT PROTECTS BOTH TENANTS AND LANDLORDS RIGHTS AND IF NOT STATED IN SUCH CONTRACT INFORMATION REGARDING SUCH ISSUE IT DOSN'T AUTOMATICALLY MEAN THE LANDLORD CAN BREAK CONTRACT TO IMPLEMENT WHAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN IMPLEMENTED. It's not a one way deal we both have rights and it even assumes in the contract I will have guests but no specifics on amount or time to be stayed.

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

I'm sorry that you don't believe us. And, unfortunately, your posts continue to be a bit confusing; it would be most useful if you could shorten them.

Yes; you are certainly allowed to have a guest. The problem is, someone who stays two weeks out of every month may, very likely, be seen as a tenant and not as a guest by the courts should the landlord decide to evict you for this reason.

Actually your contract does protect both your rights and the landlords rights by specifying who is living in the unit (you).

If you believe that the landlord is a bad one (and not meeting the landlord is really not a reason for this; my father was a janitor for a number of years; the buildings he managed were handled by a management company and in the 25+ years he did this, I never met the landlord who was a dentist who purchased the building as an investment) then live out the remaining months on your lease and find another place to rent.

Gail

 

[Crimsonsred]

I still think there is a point being missed.

I'm not trying to badger you but I don't think without a clause they could legally evict me on any grounds as I paid for the unit and I have a right to allow anyone who is not violating any grounds of the contract into my home that I own until lease is violated or expires.

My point being they would be specifically discriminating against me by not allowing me to have my said guest or guests as they would have to have a clause as there are no IL state law on guests or city law therefore should have been declared in the lease.

I understand what you are trying to say but legally there are no grounds for constituting a person from being a guest or tenant therefore it would not stand up in a court. Yes it says on the lease 1 person is to occupy but there is no legal term in which occupation is defined. Does it still classify as me being an occupant if I am not there for the rest of the lease and the lease is paid for? Yes it does which would mean everyone in the world that is not on that lease would be defined as a guest which they would not be classifying as occupying space. Lets say I invite joe schmoe to my appartment for a week and he leaves for a month and comes back.... in his absence he would not be an occupant where as I would he would always constitute as a guest. I am not subletting, I am not receiving anything from the guest for payment of any sort and she has an address that can be legally claimed for anything an hour a way. It's not as if I am sheltering the homeless and subletting them.

Now if they discriminated against me I can sue them as the other tenants would have to have the same treatment, which is not specified in the contract therefore the landlord would have to amend the contract and have everyone sign it as he cannot force a change on the contract as it would be violating my rights as a tenant.

I'm sorry if you cannot keep up with what I am saying, but it leaves to believe that you do not qualify for any legal advice because the law is all about logic, it's very clear and written... and there is a lot of it. So I am honestly not trying to insult you but if you had any legal sense you would know that questions of legality and leases are thousands upon thousands of words, which constitute an agreement which to the fullest extent should cover all situations to protect the landlord from cases such as this.

I have signed a lot of contracts being in the military and the law upholds the agreement on the contract, not he said she said, lets pull a rabbit out of our hat and see what it says to decide on a non specified clause. No legal process or contract should be short or brief.

I do not know where you are pulling this two weeks out of but it is not in the contract or law they cannot proceed with an imaginary notion and if they check up on me and my guest constantly I could sue them for harassment.

To end I'm starting feel as if this is a waste of time as you have not provided any legal backing on how they could ever possibly bring the settlement to court and have a case. In all essence you fail to understand the point that I am following the lease lawfully and this is a learning experience for the landlord as they obviously do not know how to word a good contract, he probably could have put somewhere legally I would have to rub his back after every month and if I signed it that would have been a learning experience on my behalf but I'm sure that there are legal grounds disbarring such secondary unrelated clauses in a lease.

To further move on I must ask if you have legal expertise in this situation or not if you don't my opinion is for you to not respond to such inquiries as it would be like me telling you that an orange taste just like a potato with me never having had an orange before.

 

[Crimsonsred]

I suppose in the end you are basically saying if murder is illegal then on the same ground suicide is illegal and such victim would be charged to fullest extent of a murder even though in no way shape or form the law specifies anything on self attempted suicide.

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

I understand you are upset because you'd like your girlfriend to live with you rent free. And because folks answering you have not agreed with your logic, you have decided that your best approach would be an attempt to belittle them. That's really beneath you and quite frankly, the answer is feel free to pick up your refund from this site on the way out the door.

The issue is that your lease specifies who can live there. It lists only you. If said girlfriend moves in, you will be in violation of your lease and that could very likely open the door to your landlord filing for eviction. Such an move could be made even if you have paid your rent on time.

It is important to remember that a landlord cannot actually evict you; only a court can do that. You would have the opportunity to provide your side of the case to the court. A judge would decide whether the judgement for eviction would be granted.

In terms of filing for discrimination, I've attached some information on Fair Housing Laws for you to review. Girlfriends (or boyfriends) who wish to move into rental units without being added to the lease or an increase in rent are not a protected class under these laws:

http://www.civilrights.org/fairhousing/laws/housing-discrimination.html

Good luck.

Gail

 

[mightymoose]

You are simply not understanding that you ARE violating a very common aspect of rental leases. You are the tenant, and your lease DOES state that there is only one occupant allowed. The other person's "legal residence" elsewhere has nothing to do with this. Someone who stays two weeks at a time on a regular basis is going to be viewed as a resident, not a guest.
You will lose your argument all day long in court.

 

[mightymoose]

I suppose in the end you are basically saying if murder is illegal then on the same ground suicide is illegal and such victim would be charged to fullest extent of a murder even though in no way shape or form the law specifies anything on self attempted suicide.

Murder is illegal.... suicide, and suicidal attempts, are considered a mental illness.
Apples and oranges.