Mooching Relatives Living in Your House Without Paying?

As we mentioned in one of our older blog posts, don’t let your family and friends rent with you. Because they’re your loved ones, they’re likely to expect that their love is enough to cover the expenses for overstaying their welcome in your house. Whether someone’s freeloading in the same residence you’re in, or if you have an insensitive parasite living in one of your rental properties, this one’s for you.

 

Prevent Them from Living with You

The pre-emptive step is to not allow those relatives from stepping into your doors! You know what they say, “prevention is better than cure.” Stop the disease before it gets to you! Here are some ways to keep yourself safe from mooching relatives:

 

Say no from the start. If they’re truly loved ones, they would understand your situation. You live with your family, don’t have enough space, have a business to run, or want to set an example to other tenants are a couple of acceptable reasons. However, you can also be honest in admitting that it’s your policy to refuse relatives from renting your house. What if they get mad? Don’t worry, you can still lend them a hand through other means!

 

Helping through non-financial ways. Avoid discovering the truth that your loved ones are literal nightmare tenants by gently rejecting their request, but also helping them address the root cause of their problems.

 

Usually, these people are trying to find their footing because they recently graduated, lost a job, or divorced. For the first two, you can help them write their resume, give them tips on what to say during interviews, and find people offering a job. If they’re just looking for a place to crash for a few months, find them other landlords that can cater to their needs. That way, they could be more responsible than living with you or one of your properties.

 

Some of them might have financial problems and need some help with budgeting. Help them set good spending habits, or better yet, refer a financial planner to them. Whatever their problems may be, there are always ways to help them without having to spend a significant amount of money.

 

Financial aid. Speaking of financial problems, it’s better to give monetary help at the start than have too many unexpected expenses due to someone taking you for granted.

 

Remember that letting people live with you at no cost doesn’t come for free for you. You have taxes to pay for your properties and maintenance costs that come about by wear and tear. Whether if they’d live with you in the same house or stay at a separate property you own, you’re bound to pay for something, even if they don’t intend to. Now, imagine what you’d be facing if they eventually turn out to be the irresponsible type and make a mess out of your place!

 

Are you convinced? Just give them some money if you really want to help them out. Having peace of mind is leagues better than constantly being upset about someone you can’t get rid of.

 

Just make sure you don’t turn into a bank account for these people, okay?

 

Getting Rid of Freeloading Relatives

This is probably why you clicked on the article. They’re already in. They’re causing trouble. What do you do?

 

Talk it over. You won’t be able to live like that forever, otherwise, you’re going to be at risk, financial or mental.

 

Set some time aside to discuss the matter at hand. The problem might just be a lack of communication. Tell them that if they want to stay, they’re going to have to hold the fort with you. If you’re supposed to have been using another house as a rental unit, don’t be afraid to tell them that they need to pay rent as well. If you have to show them a spreadsheet, do it!

 

Express your feelings completely without going overboard. With that said, make sure you have a clear head before starting this conversation. Other people are insensitive, but once you let them know how you feel, they’ll make a complete turnaround for you.

 

If they have financial problems as mentioned earlier, and you’ve noticed no progress after a significant amount of time now, don’t be scared to talk to them about it. Do they have bad spending habits yet you notice them consistently going on shopping sprees? What about unemployment, but they don’t seem to be looking for a job anymore? If you’re trying to help them out, then you have to see them helping themselves as well. You can utilize an accountability system to make things transparent between you and your relative.

 

Set clear expectations and rules. Put everything in writing and have them sign a contract even if they’re no tenants. You don’t have to treat them like a normal tenant, but ensure that the rules and regulations have equal advantages for you and the other party. It’s going to be awkward, but you’re going to wish you had them sign some papers when you can’t get rid of them.

 

Trust us, even if you own the property, you can’t just tell them to leave, expecting them to do it. You might even lose a lawsuit that way!

 

Sell your house. This is usually the last option for severe cases. After having a lengthy discussion about the problem and maybe even having paperwork set up, sometimes nothing just seems to work. For some people, they can’t even start a simple conversation with these problematic family members, let alone those who would damage your property out of spite like you did them wrong or something. Most of us would still want to keep those family ties strong, but everything above doesn’t fit your situation.

 

Don’t worry, there’s still a way out.

 

You can sell your property. The new owners are not going to be obligated to any unwritten family code. If you’re worried they might know you sold it just to get them to leave, relax! You can keep that a secret from them, or tell them it’s due to a financial issue you’ve been having, which is technically true.

 

Where should you start? Shorefront Investments has been dealing with these cases for years! You don’t have to worry if your “tenants” ruined the house. Give us a call or send us a message, and we’ll give you a quote. Take it as a stress-free reset button that’s going to take the burden off of your shoulders with extra money for you to use!