Dear Dave,
I own a small rental house, and for the most part my tenants have been conscientious people over the years. Recently, I learned my current tenant is subleasing the property for the short term as a vacation site. This kind of thing is prohibited in the rental agreement. He has always taken very good care of the place, so should I confront him about this, or just ignore it until it becomes a real problem?�
Karl�
Dear Karl,
This may sound hardnosed, but it�s already a problem. He�s in obvious violation of the lease agreement. If it were me, I�d have a face-to-face talk with this guy today. I�d let him know how much I appreciate that he�s been a good, respectful tenant in the past, but the subleasing has to stop.
An agreement is an agreement. I have several rental properties�myself, and I always try to be gentle and nice, but really clear about things. You may not have experienced any problems up until now, but what happens next time? If you don�t know and trust who�s in the house, you could end up with holes in the walls, ruined carpets and worse. On top of all that, what if they don�t have the money to fix things when they leave? It�ll be on you, because you lost control of your property.
Again, be decent when you talk to this guy. It sounds like you two have a good history. But�remind him he�s in violation of the lease agreement. And gently let him know if anything like this happens again, you�ll begin the eviction process.
�Dave
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