My wife and I plan on subletting our rental house. The house has a separate section with its own entrance/bathroom/living room/bedroom.
Neither of us have subletted before. My wife helped my MIL manage renting out the house (before we decided to move in) but neither of us have rented out a part of our own living space.
Any anecdotes from dopers? Any mistakes you’ve made that we can learn from?
Get everything in writing.
Specify everything in writing.
Do everything by cheque and give receipts so you have a record of it.
Don’t rent to friends or family or anyone you would have difficulty kicking out.
Have your potential sub-lettor fill in an application and check references.
Check up on your sub-lettor to make sure that they are following your rental agreement.
Don’t allow pets or smoking - pets are too destructive, and smoking is too smelly and dangerous (and destructive, if they get ash holes in everything).
References are too easily bullshitted. Unscrupulous people can easily get someone to pretend to be an old landlord or manager or professor over the phone. I believe conducting a criminal background check and a credit check (and charge them an application fee for the result) is really the best way to protect yourself. Of course, this cuts WAY down on your potential renters, since a lot of people looking to sublet are young with no credit, fairly broke and not willing to risk paying the application fee, or just have crappy credit. If they had good credit, they’d be renting from a property management company.
But find out how much notice you’re required to provide them, as well. Most of the time you can’t just barge into a lessee’s living space. You also can’t just pop in while they’re not home, barring an emergency (like a leaking toilet you’ve noticed is coming through the wall).
I think that fishbowls and outdoor smokers would be acceptable. You don’t want to make your potential renter pool nonexistent. And the more you have allowed in amenities/options, the more you can get away with charging. The fewer options you provide, the less you can get.
You should write in a clause detailing that they will need to provide you with at least month’s notice to move out, and that you will provide them with a month’s notice if you want them to move out.
You will also want to write in a clause that they’ll be required to allow you to show the apartment to prospective tenants during the last month of their tenancy (or beginning with the day that they provide you with move-out notice, whichever is earlier), as long as you provide them with x days of notice for viewings (2 days, usually). You can try to put in a subclause that they’re required to keep the place reasonably clean for viewings, although I don’t think that would be legally binding (more a gesture of goodwill that they may adhere to).
Keep receipts for your carpet. If a tenant causes damages requiring you to replace it, familiarize yourself with tenant law in your jurisdiction. Most places say that you can’t claim the full paid amount, you can only claim a depreciated amount based on how much time has passed. 7 years = full carpet depreciation in my jurisdiction.
Collect a deposit equal to one month’s rent. If you discover damages after someone moves out, repair them ASAP using the deposit, and mail them receipts detailing the amount of repairs and how that justifies you keeping it. You might want to get the carpet shampooed if it’s been a while, unless they shampooed it themselves, and you can usually get away with withholding a part of the deposit for this). If there are no significant damages, mail it back post-haste. Depending where you live, you can EASILY get fucked over in small claims court by holding onto a deposit one day too long.
In reference to references, get the landlord’s address, and verify it with the property tac records. If they don’t match, it’s bullshit.
While you are at City Hall, you might want to check the laws on sub-letting. Yes, people do it every day, but if the City catches you, the fines are hefty.
Also check out the laws pertaining to landlords and renting.
Er, why would they choose a property management company if they have good credit? My credit is perfectly good, but I rented a home from an individual who owned a small number of properties. Why? I liked the house, I liked the location, they allowed dogs, and the price was right. I don’t disagree that a background and credit check are a good idea (esp. to spot evictions!), but assuming that people are shady by necessity because they’re interested is weird.
Also, just because references can be fudged doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try them. Just the process of asking will weed out a lot of the people you don’t want – people who can’t get references will self-select out most of the time. And, needless to say, these should be from previous landlords, not job references. If you can’t find a website for the reference to verify the number is correct, you can take with with a grain of salt anyway.
I said that a lot of people who rent sublets have crappy credit, not all of them. And I said he’d be cutting down considerably on his potential applicant pool, not that it would be competely eliminated.
Since non-smokers are the majority, I don’t think he’d be eliminating too many people by not renting to smokers. Smokers stink - even if they aren’t smoking inside the apartment, the smoke smell comes in with them and gets onto everything. My parents rented out parts of their house for decades, and I would trust a renter to not smoke in a unit as far as I can throw them, even if they say they won’t do it. Then there’s the whole issue of smokers burning down your house by setting the planters on fire outside, or falling asleep with a cigarette burning inside, and all the damage they do with the live ash falling on the carpet and on countertops…if it was my house, I’d just say no smokers and be done with it.