Student rental property with unhappy renter

Parent Cafe
1

We have a rental home in our state that was my son’s while he was in medical school. Why we had never planned on being landlords, we were not able to sell the house, so began to rent it to medical students. For the 2016-2017 school year, I rented to an upcoming first year and a friend of his; they then found another incoming student to rent the third bedroom. Last year, the friend moved back home to care for his ill mother, and the two students had a falling out, so one moved out.

As the remaining student was the first to contact me about the house and was a good tenant, I had him select his new roommates and interview them. Both were first year students for the 2017-2018 school year and 2017 college graduates; the first renter is 29 years old. He has not been happy with these two renters, saying they are messy, use his personal items, and are loud, making it hard to study at home. As he has been a model renter, we discussed him staying and finding a new roommate instead of two students, and I not renewing the lease for the newer students. My feeling was he was there first, is happy to take care of the house, and is interested in buying the house if he stays there for his residency.

I thought all was settled as he talked to the other two a few weeks ago. Well I received a very nice email from the guys stated they want to stay and felt they were perfectly reasonable roommates and kept the house neat and straight; a complete contradiction to what the first student has been telling me from the start. I do think as an older student he finds these two still in college mode and not as studious as he. I also believe he may have to spend a good part of his day studying to stay on top of his work.

I really like this first kid and I he comes to me with things one might talk to a parent about. I know he comes from nothing and the other two came from what I think are upper middle class homes. I am really torn as to how to handle this now that the other two are not happy about finding another place to live. Does first dibs apply here; do I have the first guy leave and let the others stay and find a third roommate if they want? I do not think the first guy will stay with the two roommate at this point, so he would have to move out if I say the others can stay. If I let the two stay, I think I would want to increase the rent to cover a bit more repairs. As I mentioned earlier, the first guy would take care of little things in the house, and let me know if there were issues with heating, plumbing, etc… I am not sure the other two pay any attention as I have never heard from them. The original group of guys I had the first 4 years would always call or email me as a group if there was an issue; they were also good tenants, we have been lucky.

2

Keep the first guy as he has always been reliable.

3

My guy says, the first guy has first dibs, been there longer, invited the new guys, and has been reliable.

4

Double the rent on the 2 new kids and give half to the first kid to find a nicer place. :slight_smile:

Are you doing individual leases with all three parties? Or are they all jointly liable for the whole rent?

I am thinking stick with the first kid, but he needs to figure out how to choose roommates.

5

I have always done individual leases; it has worked out well for 6 years. While I feel like my allegiance is with the first renter, I do feel bad about the other two. Each lease is only for 12 months, with a date and time the lease expires, so there was never a mention of leasing beyond the one year. While the first renter knows we would like to sell, the other two probably do not. The only reason we have not tried to list again is this tenant has been good, and my neighbors like him. Our thought was to list it during his 4th year if he was not staying in the city. For the moment we break even on the house, but would like it off our plate sooner rather than later.

It isn’t like the other two guys will not be able to find housing; there is plenty to go around and if these two get along, they can find a place together. The first guy and I have talked a good bit about how to find roommates that are more compatible. When he talk to these two, he actual did not met one of them until he moved in. The mother come to see the house as her son was across the country doing some summer work. I spoke to the mom a couple of time and see seemed nice, so we rented to the unseen student. The other student came with his father, and my first renter said the student never spoke, that dad did all the taking. I found that odd as did renter one, but he decided to go ahead with him. This is the one that sent me the email tell me what a good roommate and tenant he was, and why did he have to leave! One of his reasons for wanting to stay was he had this large bedroom furniture and desk which would be hard to move!!

My gut is to stay with my first guy and hope he finds a decent roommate. He has already made flyers and submitted them to all the residency program directors to share with their new residents coming in this summer. We felt like getting another older person might be better for him and a resident would be working most of the time like he will be in his 3rd year of rotations. I do need to talk to him about if he can not find someone (which should not be a problem) if he is willing to stay in the house alone. I do not think he can afford to do so as I believe his student loan is all the money he has.

6

Keep the first one. Agree he needs roommates who are closer to his age.
Most importantly he needs others who are as stressed as he is from his studies.
It is too bad he cannot afford to live alone.
He might find female roommates a pleasant change.
The year of rotations is a difficult one. Odd and long hours.

7

I did suggest he look at a female roommate last year when he was looking. I believe he is open to anyone, but needs to have a direct talk with any potential roommate about what he is looking for and what he expects. I find it a bit odd that there isn’t one single classmate that might be looking for new living arrangements. It makes me wonder if he has friends in his class. All the upcoming first year students will of course be looking for housing, so he has posted on their FB page, although they will not be looking to move until July at the earliest. The current lease expires on July 13th, so hopefully he will have someone lined up before then.

It is funny, when my son and husband purchased this house, my son was a typical male college student in that cleanliness was not a top priority for him. I had a friend who’s daughter was also going to be a first year student, so we suggested the two live together. Our kids got together over the summer and decided it was a good idea. Well, once my son had his own home, he wanted to keep it neat and clean! He felt the roommate did keep the her part of the house clean, and would leave dirty dishes out on the counter and in the sink; something we didn’t do at home. The two decided the next year that the girl would live with one of her friends from the class, and my son found another classmate to live in the house. It worked at will for all. Now that my son is married, he is the one that takes care of the house; guess my fussiness rubbed off on him after all :slight_smile:

8

Keep the first one…and work with him to find good roommates.

9

Tell the first renter that he can rent the house, but he needs to rent the entire house. Meaning he determines who his roommates will be, but that he is primary and they’re all jointly and individually liable for the entire rent.

Cuts you out of being a micromanager from a distance and puts the onus on the singleton to find others to share the rent if he wants to turf the existing #2 and #3 renters.

10

I think I agree with milee30. And I’m not sure why the roommate issue is your problem. He picked the roommates. If he doesn’t like them for what sounds relatively minor and normal behavior for college students, well…he picked them. I don’t think that you should have to boot out people who are not destroying your property and are paying the rent on time, to have the property potentially open for who knows how long, because he’s being picky. Sure, maybe you can rent it quickly, but should you have to put up with any gap in rent because the first renter picked people he has a problem with? Maybe he’ll have a problem with anyone.

It also seems like you’re having a parental type relationship with this kid, and I don’t know if that’s a good idea at all. Then his problems become your problems, and it’s not business, it’s personal. That’s why I prefer to never even meet my renters (if possible), because they can see right through me that I’m a sucker if they’re nice people.

If he can get new roommates with no gap in rental time, sure, fine, when the other roommates lease run out…though you’d have to give them the required notice. Seems weird he can’t find anyone in his classes who is looking, do they not want to rent with him, or what’s the deal? I hope he’s not just hoping that he’ll have the house to himself with no other roommates without paying extra.

11

Don’t adopt your renters. Just get the house paid for at the price you want. Lots of kids make good renters.
How is the lease set up?

12

I would keep the first renter. He was the first, so the apartment is his “find”. He sounds very reliable too which is better than money in the bank!

It will be hard to phrase your rejection to the other two. Try to be firm and polite, and don’t leave the door open in any way. As a landlord, you may have to get used to doing things like this. At least you’re not having to charge any of them for massive damages, or charging all of them for one person’s massive damage! That is happening to a friend of mine right now.

13

The original renter and I emailed back and forth a bit yesterday and it was decided that he would stay as planned. He is aware that he needs to be more selective in his choice of roommates, but in his defense, he was upfront with one of the roommates as to what he was looking for and what was expected as far a house rules. Once he showed the house to these two and they decided they were interested, I then was involved answering any questions and providing the lease.

This one roommate just chose to ignore the request and feels that the main level where his bedroom (the master) is, is his own space. It seems he holds dinner parties and has as many as 12 people over for the evening on a school night with music playing late into the evening. While for many this would not be an issue, the original renter prefers a quieter house, and not to come down in the morning to dishes all over the counter. The other roommate shares a bathroom with the first tenant, and it is my understanding that he is a slob and will use the others towels, bath supplies, leave the toilet unflushed, and other distasteful things. This tenant, while he pays his rent, I have had to remind him on several occasions that rent was due; it seems he does the same with the household bills. I have no problem seeing this one go!!

So we are good to go; I just have to email the two to inform them formally that their lease will not be renewed.

14

If the current renter isn’t responsible for the entire amount of the rent per the lease, make sure he actually rents out the other rooms or you will be in for a bad surprise! Don’t let him be so picky that he doesn’t fill the slots or turns off all the potential renters.

15

Can you inspect the property before you give notice to the other two? Would hate to see them get po’d and trash things. Do you have deposits from them?

16

You’ve set up all the incentives for renter #1 to be in total control. He only pays 1/3 the rent and you have all the financial risk, yet he makes the house rules, he screens for tenants and oversees their behaviour. Could turn out OK, but the structure of the deal sure isn’t beneficial for you.

17

Are you renting the rooms individually? Or is one renter (or all) responsible for the total rent?
That’s a big key I don’t see answered.
If original renter is responsible for total rent and doing allowed subletting that is one thing, In that scenario he can kick out roommates because he’s still responsible for the rent. And he can kick them out–not you. Let him worry if the rent will get paid.

If you are renting rooms to individuals who are paying rent to you for a portion of the house then you are now basically sticking your nose into “roommate problems” and playing mom to a 29 year old.
I would question letting one renter (UNLESS he’s on the hook for entire rent) being in charge of the “house rules” and having veto power. The important thing here is your landlord rules–no damage, maintain to whatever levels set, pay rent on time etc. Landlord rules do not venture into “roommate problems”. Unless the late night parties attract police attention, violate community rules or get complaints from neighbors etc, they really don’t count.

Look at your rental market–if the market is “first years” and kids getting into school then your present renter won’t be finding compatible roommates–he’s aged out. Big difference in 5-7 years in the 20’s. If he wants to buy, fine.

I’d be very upfront with the original tenant as to expectations from a landlord’s viewpoint.
(And yes, if I was renting a place and had furniture etc expecting to stay there a few years figuring I was a good, responsible tenant–I’d be very upset to get notice–depending on area, rental market etc, I’d be looking hard at my lease to see “if they can do that”.). What does the rental contract say?

18

I think you are getting way too involved in the minutiae of this.I don’t know why you have to know such trivia, like, “This guy is using my towel.” But I’m hoping the contract ends at the end of the school year? That would be pretty harsh to kick people out before the school year ends because of rather trivial issues, and very hard to find new tenants for a short time. I’m assuming it’s renewal for the upcoming school year.

Roommate #1 had better find some new roommates to cover the loss of rent, or you are going to definitely regret letting him take priority over the current tenants. And if he’s not interested in rooming with undergrads, but is unable to get graduate students, you could lose some money for this.Hopefully he will find some people who don’t want to have friends over, will clean up, flush the toilet and won’t use his supplies. Under those rules, I’d have to evict my own children. :open_mouth:

19

So this guy had a falling out with one of the first tenants, and is now unhappy with two other tenants he picked. Sounds like my son, who did not had a roommate senior year of college or in any of his three apartments since college and that’s for the best, just better off living alone. I agree with those who say if he wants control over the roommates, he has to rent the entire house and sublease to his choices. Or perhaps you can switch to a “rent to buy” arrangement since you mentioned he might eventually be interested in buying.

No matter what, something is bound to tick him off with any roommate.

20

We have decided to allow the original renter to stay (his third year in our home,) and not renew the lease for the other two, who have only lived in the house this school year.
To answer some questions that were mentioned here-

Each renter has their own lease and the rent is split 3 ways, with each tenant mailing me their monthly rent. The original renter has always paid on time, usually early every month; one of the other students is usually late, from 1-5 days, the other has also paid on time.

All will stay in the home for the entirety of their lease; we are not kicking anyone out, just not renewing for the next school year.

There should not be a problem finding a suitable renter or renters as this is a medical and dental school small city; a couple of hundred new first year students as well as new residents in all specialties. We are not talking undergrads, only graduate students and medical residents, post medical school. Current students are always changing housing as well looking for new roommates or location. Our house is in a great location.

The original roommate lost his first roommate not by his choice as that had become great friends. Without going into details, it was a wise choice for the other to leave at the end of his lease.

Why I have had many email conversations with the original renter, we have never met or spoken by phone other than when he first inquired about the house. The only reason he connected with me was I provided him with some information about the school, area, etc… as my son had lived there for 4 years and I lived in the city when my husband was in school there. He has willingly taking the responsibility of the care of the home, from changing filters and light bulbs, repairing minor things that didn’t need a handyman to make a call, and notifies me if anything is amiss. My first batch of tenants did the same the first 4 years; these last 2 do nothing. He is a perfect tenant and if he stays in the city, he would like to try and buy the house. He wanted to do so last year, but did not have enough money to do so as he could not get a loan. Once he has an income as a resident, he would like to try again. We did not want to do a lease to own as that didn’t help us out any.

If the original renter doesn’t find someone to his likely, and I don’t think that would happen, he has said he will be responsible for the full rent of the house. He has until mid July to find someone and he is hoping to find just one roommate. I think he would just like to find someone respectful, interested in a clean home and on the quieter side. I also don’t want the home trashed, so happy he actually cares about the upkeep of the home. While I did not require it, I do suggest with each new renter that they consider a cleaning service maybe once a month. I provide them with the name and number if they would like to use them, or someone else if they prefer. The first 4 years the guys did indeed have a cleaning service, although I do not know how often. I will say that when the tech came to service the AC, he commented to me how clean the house was with 3 guys living there!! This group has decided not to use a service or clean themselves other than the original renter.