Tenants vs. Residents?

[alltheglitter]

Hi all! I tend to lurk around these forums because I'm hoping to buy an investment property in the not too distant future, and you're all pretty knowledgable on the subject. Made an account to ask this question, which is purely hypothetical, but I'm curious as to who is right.

The situation: Say you lease a property to 3 tenants - mum, dad, 19 year old son. They're all on the lease, everything is going well. The tenants, without your knowledge, allow the son's 18 year old girlfriend to move in and they don't advise the real estate agent of this.

This came up with a friend of mine. She believes that the landlord/REA has no legal right to ask about "residents" living in the rental property, and that the "tenants" can have whoever they want living there without breaching the lease. In my experience, lease agreements (at least in NSW) generally have a section that says "No more than X number of people may normally reside at the premises" which I always understood to mean that I couldn't just ask my BFF to move in with me without asking permission from the landlord. If I found that there were more than the agreed upon number of tenants in my property, I'd be annoyed and request that they go on the lease.

So my question is this: Can a tenant unilaterally decide to move in "residents" who are not listed as "tenants" on the lease without repercussions?

(I apologise if this isn't an appropriate post for this forum, by the way!)

 

[Perp]

Clause 15.5 of the tenancy agreement says that the tenant will not "cause or permit more people to reside in the residential premises than is permitted by this agreement".

So no, the tenant can't unilaterally decide to move more people in, and the landlord/agent does have a right to know who's living there.

If the tenant applies to add people to the lease, however, it's pretty much a formality that the landlord will accept. But the tenant is obliged to advise the landlord.

 

[Salvatore1]

On a tenants application it states how may people will be residing at the property and I normally type that number onto the lease. Therefore if the tenant signs for only 3 fulltime people to live there then only 3 are permitted to reside. If the tenant wishes for a 4th later on they need the owner permission. If permitted they dont need to be added onto the lease but both parties agree to 4. If not agreed then the tenant is in breech off their lease and then the owner decides what steps they then take. Only tenants listed on the lease are responsible for the property. Hope this helps. We wont go into sub leasing by a tenant.

 

[alltheglitter]

Thanks for the reply, guys Makes sense. It's handy to know that additional tenants don't need to be added to the lease as long as the landlord is informed and approves, too.

 

[marg4000]

There is plenty of wriggle room for astute tenants.

We had a similar situation - more people in the house than on the lease. Tenant reason(s) was that the extra people were "visiting" or "on holidays" - both of which are allowable.

PM said there was not much we could do - success at tribunal was very unlikely.
Marg

 

[Scott No Mates]

You've hit it on the head Marg - there is little you can do about it in most cases (unless of course the tenant's use is causing overcrowding of the property - building extra bedroom/s or turning lounge or dining room into bedroom etc for additional people).