This is a ramble fueled by anxiety and just general freaking out. You’ve been warned.
So I own a manufactured home in another city. Flat out. But it’s on a rented lot space. I don’t live there because it’s so far away from my family, who I rely heavily on for watching my daughter. I haven’t lived there in like 3 or 4 years. To help out a family member, I rent it to her for $500 a month which just barely covers the lot rent. Well apparently my landlord found out and told me I’m not allowed to sublease. I apologized and said I didn’t realize but I wanted to figure out how we could make it work. He sent me a bunch of docs in an email and said to get them back to him. I knew my relative needed to sign one so I sent it to her and waited.
I was already stressed out about this, and when I stress I procrastinate. Not effective at all. Well he called today asking where the papers were and I apologized again and said I’d send them tomorrow. He also mentioned that I was $100 short on my rent and I was like what? Apparently he’s adding $100 to my lot rent effective July because I’m ‘subleasing’. I was a bit caught off guard but he said it was mentioned in the email so I just said ok, I’ll get that out tomorrow.
I finally get past my mental blocks and open the email to look at the docs. One of them is basically chiding me for ‘subleasing’ when it’s against the original lease. Now he’s requiring this huge list of things because of this.
I don’t have any of that and I don’t even know what to do about it. I know me procrastinating and not even looking at the letter till now was entirely my fault which is adding to my panic, but I’m feeling so overwhelmed. I’m terrified he’s going to end the lease all together. If he does, I have to somehow get MY house off HIS property in 30 days or he owns it. FML
I’m not a lawyer, but I fail to see how he would own your home if you don’t remove it from his property in a certain amount of time. It’s still yours, unless you signed away the rights to it somehow.
I would imagine if push came to shove, he would have some ability to remove it from his land and charge you for it. Not optimal, but not the same as losing the whole thing.
Overall, I think you have two general choices: either you commit to fixing this whole situation with the landlord and you get your shit together this very moment; or you acknowledge that this whole relationship may be burned and time to start looking at moving.
If you want to fix it, be prepared to pay some increased cost (not because that’s fair but because you likely need to compromise with the landlord, though you might want to try to negotiate some kind of delay in when you need to start paying it), pass that cost along to your tenant, get your relative’s signature now, and sort out all the other amendments.
Or you can move.
While the landlord generally has a much stronger hand here, keep in mind that he probably doesn’t want you to move. It’s would imagine that he is not renting prime property where he could find someone else to rent it very easily, so he should have an interest in you not moving and leaving him without rent for several months. See this as his incentive to reach a negotiated settlement with you, even though he’s probably mad right now, probably more for your procrastination (which could be viewed as you not taking his concerns seriously) than for the original offense.
If you and your relative can’t provide the things the landlord is requesting, I think your only option is to either leave it empty or find a tenant who is willing and able to comply with the landlords request.
I think he is holding most of the cards here, unfortunately.
I’m prone to procrastination particularly when dealing with unpleasant stuff. Just remember action is the antidote.
Once you’re in the fray, making phone calls, copies and writing letters, you’ll find the anxiety disappears. The important thing, though, is to take that first action; be it making phone calls or searching online for rental agreement forms. Do it and you’ll feel much better.
Landlords have had to put up with all sorts of drug and criminal activity. They are SICK of it. It has cost them thousands of dollars. Bad people move in and the good people leave. They want good people living on their properties and don’t want any trouble, thus the background checks.
The signed rental agreements give them the legal ability to kick out criminals and druggies.
So I don’t blame them one bit!
If you can’t take care of these things yourself, get a CPA or “property manager” to do this for you. They may do this for a one-time charge of say $400. And that is reasonable. Paperwork like this is easy for those folks.
What does your original lease say about subleasing? Some leases out-and-out forbid subleasing, while others allow it “with approval of the landlord, which shall not be unreasonably withheld”. It is not at all uncommon for the landlord to require that the subtenant complete applications and background checks and obtain renters insurance. It sounds like you are dealing with a landlord who intends to enforce the lease.
Now, asking for an extra $100 seems a bit over the top. What does your lease say about that? Does it have any wording about charging more rent if you sublease? I haven’t seen that in any of the leases I’ve seen. If it’s not there, he can’t arbitrarily charge it. Leases work both ways.
I am not very familiar with residential land leases. I am familiar with commercial land leases, for example where the site is leased and the tenant constructs a fast food restaurant, bank or drug store, for example. Most of those leases include wording that specifically says that any constructed buildings become the property of the land owner at the end of the lease.
Again, it should be spelled out in the lease what happens if the tenant leaves the house/trailer on the site at the end of the lease. Mobile homes are titled like vehicles. There has to be some way for mobile home park owners, for example, to claim ownership of an abandoned trailer that someone leaves behind, either to sell it or rent it out. As long as the mobile home remains on the site, you owe the landlord rent. It sounds like you might want to get out of the absentee tenant situation and just sell the mobile home, paying rent until it’s sold.
I worked in rental property management for 26 years, and this information is standard. The landlord wants to cover all the legal bases. If you can’t do this, find a property rental office who will do it for a fee.
Make sure the lease includes the clause “Any illegal activity will be grounds for immediate eviction.”
The landlord can evict you off of his property, but he won’t own your home unless you’ve agreed to forfeit it in your contract. (And why would you do that?)
At the risk of being obvious, why not just sell the home? Sounds like you’re not using it, and you’re not making any money on it, either. Manufactured homes don’t appreciate, so why are you even bothering with it?
If you don’t want to sell, then negotiate a new lease with him that includes the ability to sublease. Instead of a $100 increase, offer $50 more per month.
#1 - Ask the landlord for a copy of the rental agreement. Then call your relative and fill it out with the required information. Mail it to your relative and ask him/her to sign in and mail it to the landlord asap. #2 Ask the landlord to waive the credit check because you’ll continue to pay the rent every month, whether the relative pays you or not, and whether the relative is living there or not.
If he wants to do a criminal screening, ask him who he uses and hire them to do the screening. Or ask him if he’d handle it (since he does this all the time), and you’ll reimburse him for his expenses.
#3) You can find a generic copy of a rental agreement online. If your relative doesn’t want to sign up for a year, I’d suggest making it month to month with 30 days notice. That’s pretty standard.
#4) As simple as making a copy of #3
#5) Redundant
#6) If you don’t have homeowner’s insurance, get it. It’s cheap. Your relative should get renter’s insurance, too, if she wants to cover her possessions. Not sure why your landlord is requiring this for a sublessee if he didn’t require it for the original lease.
I’m really trying not to freak out too but with my anxiety my mind tends to spiral with stuff like this. I was really upset about the $100 too. I don’t have the original lease cause it’s been like seven years since I signed it. But he sent me a copy of the first page pointing out the clause saying: “Subleasing, including house sitting, of the premises is strictly prohibited without the written authorization of the landlord.”
And in the letter he wrote me and emailed he stated the reason for the $100 increase: “Under our Rental Agreement we don’t allow subleasing without written permission. If we agree to allow for subletting of the space a $100.00 fee will apply. This fee will then be added to the rent and become part of the rent for the space.Since you have already rented out the house without permission; the fee will apply on July 1, 2016.”
So I don’t even know. My mom also thinks I should sell it but once again, the thought of going through the process of it just completely sends my anxiety through the roof. Ugh I hate anxiety
There are websites that advertise tenant background checks for $20. Dunno how reliable. Note too that denying a rental application based on a criminal record is now significantly more difficult to justify legally.
Hey, OP, I took the term “manufactured home” and the fact that it was on a rented property to mean that you could move the home with some time and expense. Is this the case or not?
He can’t modify the terms of your written contract, except in writing (and signed by both parties). IOW, he can’t just make up remedies that don’t exist in the contract, such as a $100 increase. However, since you violated the terms of your contract, he does have grounds to evict you, which might have negative consequences on your credit rating if he reports the eviction. So you may be better off paying the $100 additional, but I wouldn’t sign a new lease unless I had no other options.
Is the home worth anything? If not, why not ask your relative if he/she wants it? If it is, then I’d put it on Craigslist and end the stress involved with owning a property you don’t use.
“Manufactured Home” is the upscale, modern name for “trailers.”
Besides the older term carrying some trashy baggage, these things haven’t really been trailers for a long time - simply box housing with a subframe and axle that allow them to be moved to a location. In practical terms they are meant to be placed/installed once and moved only with almost as much effort as moving a frame house.
But unless you put them on your own land, you have to rent the space they occupy. So you have all the joys of home ownership (of a structure built to peculiar if not substandard specs, since they are meant to be inexpensive and have to comply with “trailer” requirements), and all the joys of renting in a crowded neighborhood.
Did it once for about six months, and when my FIL threatened to repossess the unit he’d given his daughter, she let him.
Ravenman, technically I guess I could but the home’s almost 40 years old and I have my doubts as to whether or not it would survive a move. And even then, where the hell would I put it?
PunditLisa yeah I was kinda thinking the same thing. I could definitely point that out but he’s got every right to evict me. So again, I’m kinda in a shitty situation. I still don’t understand why he wants us both to have renter’s insurance. All he owns in the land itself and that’s not covered by insurance anyway.
In general, manufactured homes are VERY popular where I live here in Oregon. The place where this one is housed is a nice neighborhood, right by the school and just not one of those junky mobile home parks you think of. I’d honestly love to move into it again but it’s just not feasible for me with my daughter
can you sell it to the current tenant? so that she pays you the extra $100.00 a month until you reach an agreed upon sum and then negotiates with the space owner for the lot.
the manufactured home is depreciating anyway, The terms of the sale to your current tenant would be up to you but is seems to me to be a lot less stressful to say she pays you $100.00 a month for 10 years and then she pays the lot rental whatever it is. A bill of sale should be easy to negotiate (probably need a lawyer), you run the risk of her not paying you but what are you really out?
You will find that there are no strict definitions, and “mobile”, “modular” and “manufactured” homes mean different things in different parts of the country. In my region, a “mobile home” has a steel chassis and either has or can accommodate axles and wheels, and can indeed be moved.
A “manufactured homes” is built with a strong wood frame in a factory, and then transported by truck to where it is set upon a traditional concrete slab or basement foundation with a crane. They are not designed to be moved. There are high-quality manufactured homes that are multi-story, with fairly intricate and steep roofs and facades. You can’t tell the difference between a good manufactured home and a stick-built home without really looking closely (and knowing what you are looking for).
In between, you have “modular homes”, which are most often referred to as “double-wides”. They have the steel chassis of a mobile home, but are usually two sides that are joined together on-site. They are very rarely moved once set in place.
I’m aware of the current range of factory-built housing. The original idea was trailers that were only parked in one place for a few years at a time. Then they were boxes of limited mobility that could be moved but often weren’t. Then they were boxes that were meant to be installed once.
However, if the OP’s on rental property, it’s not a permanent-foundation type. Doubly so for having been there for decades.
Renter’s insurance is cheap and I don’t understand why you don’t just work your way down the list and provide the documentation requested. That covers your legal butt too, btw, so why not do it? I’d try to negotiate that $100 – okay, agree to $100 as a one-time penalty for violating the lease, but jack up the rent by only $50. It can’t hurt to ask. The worst that can happen is he will say no. And your renter can absorb that cost or she will move out. And before you move someone else in there, renegotiate your lease to include a sublease option and set it up right from the get-go with all the same paperwork. Unless you sell the home, it’s your problem either way. So do it right, make it legal, and all will be well.
Are you getting treatment for that anxiety? Because this is an over-the-top response to what seems to me to be a minor bump in the road. People encounter paperwork problems all the time. This is not a big deal. You will not go to jail or lose your home (where you live now). The only place where you fucked up a little is in not communicating to the property owner. But okay, so he’s given you an avenue to remedy that. Rather than freak out and panic, just go down the list, one thing at a time, and obtain that paperwork. But you’re freaking out and panicking rather than coping, so that suggests to me that you need some therapy or meds or should be taking your meds or getting your dosage adjusted or something. You appear to be having an unhealthy response to a rather mundane, minor stressor. I’m not saying that as a personal criticism; just saying think about getting some help (if you haven’t already) so that minor stressors like this don’t wreck your life every few minutes.
