What to do if Your Tenant is Subletting

As a rental property owner, your livelihood depends on trusting your cherished Brownsburg rental property to a tenant you know and have carefully screened. This is exactly why it can be a huge problem if your tenant plans to sublet the rental house – particularly if they do so without your knowledge or permission. Setting the terms of your tenant’s stay in your rental home begins with sure and clear language in the lease. If you already have your subletting policy in writing and your tenant violates it, here are some points you’ll need to handle the situation like a pro.

Gather Evidence

If you consider your tenant might be subletting your property without permission, your initial step should be to confirm your suspicions. It’s highly possible that the new “tenant” is not subletting but rather house-sitting or staying at the property for various reasons. You can initiate this process by interviewing both your original tenant and the person in the house and documenting their answers, together with when your conversation occurred and any other evidence you may have noticed.

You may, moreover, have to talk to the neighbors, or anyone else you think may have information in connection with the circumstance. If your tenant is subletting your rental through a platform like Airbnb, for instance, you can even be able to search for your property on the app and apply what you find out as evidence of the lease violation.

Give Notice of Lease Violation

If your research does verify that your tenant is subletting, and your lease specifically states that subletting is not allowed, you’ll need to notify your tenant that they have violated their lease. Include any other violations your research may have seen and uncovered, mainly if the person subletting is not upholding the lease terms.

Regardless of who is living in the rental and their agreement with your tenant, your tenant is still responsible for upholding their lease agreement. In most instances, it is acceptable to give your tenant a time (such as 30 days) to rectify the situation and come back to compliance with their lease. You will then need to track once that time has passed to see whether the subletting tenant is gone or not.

Take Legal Action, If Needed

Should your tenant refuse to comply with your request to actually remove the person subletting the property, your next move may be to commence the eviction process. Just ensure to inspect your state and local laws and follow all of the statutes and rules to the letter.

With a subletting tenant complicating the case, you need to know what your rights are, whether or not you can legally remove the subletting tenant, and what actions you’ll need to take to do it. Contingent on where you live, you may be required to evict both your tenant and the subletting tenant before you can recover full rights and access to your rental property.

In the long run, your legal recourse will be dependent on both where your property is located and the language in your lease. If your lease does not have clear language defining your policy on subletting, that is something you can rectify simply and easily. The best course of action is stopping it before it occurs when it comes to preventing subletting.

 

If you find yourself confronting a subletting tenant, know that you don’t have to cope with it all alone. The property management professionals at Real Property Management Indianapolis Edge have the experience and legal knowledge to lead you through any lease violation circumstance, getting you back to business as usual as easily and as effortlessly as possible. Learn more about what we can do for property owners like you by contacting us online or calling us at 317-420-8500.