If you are not sure whether the person you want to evict is a tenant or not, you should talk to a lawyer before you decide what to do next. I've read all of this, and I'm still not sure whether the person living in my property is a tenant or not. Guests” above.) If you are receiving a housing subsidy, you may want to talk to a lawyer to make sure you are following the rules of your subsidy program. You will need to figure out whether that person is your tenant or is a guest. If the person you want to evict is not a tenant, but is a household member or authorized occupant, you may be able to evict that person. Co-tenants usually cannot evict each other, even if one of the co-tenants stops paying the rent or is violating the lease that they both signed. If you and another person are co-tenants on the lease because you both signed the lease as tenants, you will both have an equal right to live in the property in most cases.

Is that person a tenant or something else? The person I want to evict is a co-tenant on my lease.

In very rare cases when a person lives in a property for at least 15 years without the owner’s permission and meets several other conditions, then that person may own the property by “adverse possession.” This is usually what people mean when they talk about squatter’s rights. It is possible for a person to be both an employee and a tenant.ĭoesn't living in a property for a long time give a person “squatter’s rights?Ī person does not become a tenant just because he or she has lived in a property for a long time. Whether an employee is a tenant depends on the specific agreement between the employee and employer. The most common example of this is live-in health care aides. Are household employees tenants?Įmployees who get housing from their employers as part of their pay are usually not tenants. This is true even if the time in the agreement is now over.

If you have a written agreement that a person is a tenant for a certain period of time, you will probably need to follow the procedures for evicting a tenant. What if we have a written agreement that says that a person is a tenant only for a certain amount of time and that time is now over? If the issue ever came into court, the court would look at what is really happening, not just what the person was called in the agreement. You cannot change a tenant into a guest just by changing what you call that person in your agreement. But, if the person is paying rent, he or she may still be considered a tenant, no matter what the agreement says. What if we have a written agreement that says that the person living in my house is NOT a tenant? For example, if a person gives the owner money on a regular basis and the owner accepts it, that might create a landlord-tenant relationship. A person can become a tenant based on the way he or she acts and how the other person responds.A person can become a tenant through a verbal agreement.An agreement to rent a property does not need to be in writing. However, if a person has agreed to pay, do work, or give you something of value in exchange for living in your home, they may be considered a tenant even if they have never done anything to keep this agreement.įor example, if someone promised to pay you $500 per month to sleep in your spare room, that person may be a tenant even if he or she never paid even $1 in rent since they moved in. If a person has never paid money, done work for you, or given you something of value AND they never agreed to do any of those things, then he or she is probably not a tenant. A person can also “pay” rent by doing work or giving things to the person they are renting from. This is true even if the person is only using part of a house or apartment, such as when a person is sleeping on your couch. In general, if a person has paid rent or has agreed to pay rent to live somewhere, then that person is a tenant.

Quit claim deed form michigan