When Your Tenant's Kid Turns 18

Most landlords don't think twice when a teenager has been living in their rental for years. But the moment that kid turns 18, something quietly shifts — and if you're not paying attention, it can cost you.

In this Shorty episode of the Your Landlord Resource Podcast, Kevin and I dig into one of those landlord blind spots that doesn't announce itself until something goes wrong. We're talking about what actually happens — legally and practically — when a minor living in your rental unit becomes an adult, and why doing nothing about it is one of the riskiest moves you can make as a self-managing landlord.

Here's what surprises most people: screening an 18-year-old occupant has nothing to do with income. You're not evaluating whether they can pay rent — their parent is still responsible for that. What you are doing is finding out if this adult, who now has zero legal obligation to you, has any background history you should know about before letting the situation continue unchecked.

We share two real stories from our own experience — including one from our own portfolio that, honestly, we're still a little embarrassed about — and walk through the difference between adding a young adult as a full co-tenant versus using an adult occupant addendum, and why that distinction matters more than most landlords realize. We also talk through what happens when something catastrophic occurs with the primary leaseholder, and why having the right lease language in place before that birthday arrives can save everyone from an impossible situation.

If you have a tenant with a teenager living in your rental — or you're drafting a new lease and kids are part of the household — this one is for you.

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Transcript

Stacie 0:00

Okay, so here's where a lot of landlords get tripped up. They hear the words screening and they immediately think credit scores, income verification, two and a half times rent, proof of employment, all that stuff. And then they look at an 18-year-old who's a full-time student with a part-time job at the coffee shop, and they think, well, they're never gonna qualify, so why should I bother? And that's not what we're screening for here, at all. What you are doing is finding out if this adult has any history you should know about before you let the situation continue to uncheck.

Speaker 0:46

Welcome to Your Landlord Resource podcast. Many moons ago when I started as a landlord, I was as green as it gets. I may have had my real estate license, but I lack confidence and the hands-on experience needed when it came to dealing with tenants, leases, maintenance, and bookkeeping after many failed attempts. Fast forward to today, Kevin and I have doubled our doors and created an organized. Professionally operated rental property business. Want to go from overwhelm to confident if you're an ambitious landlord or maybe one in the making. Join us as we provide strategies and teach actionable steps to help you reach your goals and the lifestyle you desire, all well building is streamlined and profitable rental property business. This is Your Landlord Resource Podcast.

Stacie 1:35

Hey there landlords. Quick question for you. You've got a tenant who's been in your unit for two years. Great family, they pay on time the whole deal. Their teenager has been living there since the day they moved in. Quiet kid never caused any trouble, and you've seen them like three times. And then they turn 18. And nothing happens. No paperwork, no conversation, you don't think twice about it. Because why would you? He's already there, right? Except now he's a legal adult living there on your property, and you have absolutely zero contractual relationship with him. You've never screened him. He hasn't signed anything legally binding him to the unit. He owes you nothing. And depending on what happens next, that little gap in your lease could cost you months of headaches.

Kevin 2:29

And that's not hypothetical by the way.

Stacie 2:32

No, it is not. We are going to talk about that here today. So welcome to The Your Landlord Resource Podcast. I am Stacie, he's Kevin, and this is a shorty episode. So we shoot for around 15 to 20 minutes long. It's one focus topic, zero fluff. Let's go.

Kevin 2:55

Okay, I better hurry up. I'm on the clock. Before we get into the stories, and there are stories, we need to make sure we're all speaking the same language. Because this episode is specifically about occupant children who turn 18 while they're living in the unit. We're not talking about screening a brand new adult tenant applicant, that's a whole different episode. So, two terms you need to know before we start. An occupant is someone who lives in your unit but has signed nothing. They have no legal financial obligation to pay rent. Or to be accountable to you for anything. They're just there. This would be similar to a live-in aid who is taking care of your actual tenant. They have permission to live there, but unless they sign an agreement or addendum, they do not have a legal relationship with the landlord. A leaseholder or co-tenant is someone who has actually signed the lease. They are legally bound by every single term in it. Rent, conduct, damages, all of it. And they're the ones who are responsible for gatekeeping their guests and occupants to make sure they are following the rules dictated in the lease. For instance, a no pets clause or a no smoking clause. And in most states, co tenants share what's called joint and several liability, which means you can hold any one of them responsible for the full rent if the others don't pay. This is similar to the recent roommate issue we recently had where one moved out mid lease by legally invoking their domestic abuse rights, leaving the other roommate to be responsible for the entire amount of the rent. If you miss that episode, it's episode 120 and we will link it in the show notes. Here's the thing, most landlords don't think about. When a child who's been living in your unit turns 18, nothing changes automatically. They're still just an occupant, which honestly is just like a guest who has permission to live there permanently. But now they're a legal adult. Someone you've never screened. And they're living in your unit with zero obligations and honestly, fewer protections than you think. And that's the gap we're here to close today.

Stacie 5:30

Okay, so here's where a lot of landlords get tripped up. They hear the words screening and they immediately think credit scores, income verification, two and a half times rent, proof of employment, all that stuff. And then they look at an 18-year-old who's a full-time student with a part-time job at the coffee shop, and they think, well, they're never gonna qualify, so why should I bother? And that's not what we're screening for here, at all. When a minor in your unit turns 18, their parent or guardian is still the financially responsible party on the lease. That doesn't change. You are not adding this young adult as a financial guarantor. You are not expecting them to cover the rent. What you are doing is finding out if this adult who is now legally capable of entering into agreements, making their own decisions, and yes, creating problems, has any history you should know about, before you let the situation continue unchecked. So what does that screening actually look like? You're running a criminal background check. You're checking the sex offender registry, non-negotiable every time. And if there's any rental history, even from a college dorm or a previous roommate situation, you're checking for prior evictions. That's it. You're not trying to disqualify them on any income.. You're trying to know who is living in your property.

Kevin 7:02

And just to be clear, Fair Housing rules still apply. Your screening criteria must be consistent and documented. You cannot hold an 18-year-old occupant to a different standard than you'd apply to any other adult. But you absolutely can require a background check as a condition of remaining in the unit once they become an adult.

Stacie 7:26

Right. And we'll always say this, check with a real estate attorney in your state for the specifics of what you can and cannot include in your screening criteria,'cause laws vary more than people realize. So let me do a quick reminder and disclosure here. We provide general education information to you all. Landlord tenant screening laws vary significantly by state and municipality. So please, please, please, before establishing or modifying your screening criteria, consult a licensed real estate attorney in your, or your rental properties jurisdiction if you manage it from a different state. All right, story time. This is something we actually experienced ourselves, and quite frankly, I'm a little embarrassed that we let it happen because we absolutely knew better. We had a lovely couple who was renting one of our two bedroom units and they were raising their teenage grandson. He'd been living there since the lease began. I think he was like 16, ready to turn 17 when they moved in. When he turned 18, we did not add him to the lease. We did not screen him. Honestly, we didn't even really think much about it., And after they moved out, we found through our other tenants, not through the grandparents, that multiple times the grandparents had left the country for an extended trip. Months long trips like two to three months at a time. And the grandson was living in the unit alone. Unscreened, unlisted,, no contractual relationship with us whatsoever. Now, the neighbors were not happy. Both the tenants on the other side of the wall and the people next door to the property told us after the fact that the noise was unbearable. Loud music, yelling while gaming, friends talking out on the front stoop until all hours of the night. You know, stuff that young people do without consideration to the others that are living around them. And I guess it was better that we didn't know all this until after, because we would not have had much leverage had we discussed the issue directly with this young man. He hadn't signed anything, he owed us nothing. And we couldn't point to a lease violation because he wasn't on the lease. But we could have gone after his grandparents and threatened them with a lease violation. Again, had we known. And you guys, they were out of the country, so contacting them might've resulted in a delayed response. But anyway, that is what doing nothing looks like in practice. An adult living in your property with no accountability to anyone.

Kevin 10:20

Exactly. We had no contractual relationship with him at all, which meant our options for addressing the situation were, I guess, limited to put it politely. So your instinct might be, okay, just put'em on the lease. Done. Problem solved. Right? And sometimes that is exactly right, but not always. Because there's a meaningful difference between adding someone as a full co-tenant with financial liability and adding them as a named adult occupant who acknowledges the lease rules without being responsible for rent. Think about it this way. If you add an 18-year-old full-time student as a co-tenant and their parent loses their job and can't pay rent, you can theoretically go after the student for the full amount. Which sounds useful until you realize they have no income and no assets. You've added legal responsibility to someone who cannot actually fulfill it.

Stacie 11:22

Yeah, and there's an emotional piece here too. If something catastrophic happens to the parent, you know, we're talking illness, death, sudden loss of income, do you really want an 18-year-old kid to be on the hook for full rent in the middle of a crisis?

Kevin 11:38

Probably not.

Stacie 11:39

Right?

Kevin 11:40

Which is why the better middle ground, the one most landlords don't even know exists, is the adult occupant addendum. Now this is a separate document that adds the adult to your official records. It establishes a signed acknowledgement of the lease rules, you know, noise, guests, conduct, and documents that you've screened them, without making them financially responsible for rent. You've got a contractual relationship, you've got their acknowledgement in writing, and you haven't put an 18-year-old in an impossible situation.

Stacie 12:15

Now, I believe both EZ Landlord Forms and Turbo Tenant have options that can work for this. EZ Landlord Forms offers an amendment to add tenant document that can be adapted. And Turbo Tenant allows you to create or upload a custom addendum directly to their system with E-signature capability. So before you use either platform's form or any landlord software for that matter, just verify that it allows you to specify occupant only status versus full co-tenant status. Because that's the distinction that matters a lot for this situation. Okay, here's the thing about knowing better. Knowing better doesn't always mean that you've nailed every detail, and we have a very recent example of that. We actually experienced this one as well. More just from the advisory side though. One of our family members had a tenant with a 17-year-old son living in the unit. And we told them, which was a smart move, to put a clause in the lease stating that the son would need to be formally added when he turned 18. Very proactive. Exactly the right instinct, right? Not quite. We were not specific enough with our advice and the clause they wrote did not specify how he would be added. Would it be occupant only or a co-tenant with financial liability? Would they use an adult occupant addendum? It just said added to the lease, which means when that birthday comes, there's ambiguity. And ambiguity in a lease is never your friend. The lesson, the instinct was right. The execution needed one more sentence to clarify if they would be screened and then added as an occupant only, or as a co-tenant, or if they were gonna be executing an adult occupant addendum to the original lease.

Kevin 14:21

And that's the near miss right there. A clause that almost does what it's supposed to do. The difference between added to the lease and added as a named adult occupant required to complete background screening and sign a lease rule acknowledgement addendum without financial liability for rent, this difference is enormous.

Stacie 14:44

Yep. One more sentence and that's all it takes.

Kevin 14:49

This is the scenario nobody wants to think about, but as a landlord, you have to. The parent on the lease passes away or becomes seriously ill or loses their job and walks away from the unit. What Happens to the 18-year-old who's been living there?

Stacie 15:07

Well, if they're only listed as an occupant with no formal documentation, they have no legal right to stay and no legal obligation to pay. You might need to start the eviction process on someone who just lost their parent, and that's just an awful situation for everyone.

Kevin 15:26

How about if they're a full co-tenant? They're now legally responsible for rent, they may not be able to pay. Also a bad situation, just a different direction.

Stacie 15:38

This is why we recommend talking to a real estate attorney about including what is sometimes called a succession clause. Language that spells out what happens to adult occupants if the primary lease holder can no longer fulfill the lease. Does the adult occupant get a grace period to either assume the lease or vacate? How many days under what conditions?

Kevin 16:02

Yeah, I mean, having that language in the lease up front means everyone knows the plan before the crisis hits. And in our experience, tenants actually appreciate that clarity. All right, let's get practical. If you're listening to this right now and you've got a tenant with a teenager in your unit, or you are drafting a new lease and you know kids are part of the household, here's what your lease should address. Number one. If a minor occupant will turn 18 during the lease term, name it now. Put it in writing. Something like occupant currently age 17 shall be required to complete a background screening and sign a lease acknowledgement upon turning 18. Put their name in there and put the approximate date if you know it. Number two. Specify what added actually means. Occupant acknowledgement only with no financial liability or full co-tenant status. Decide before the birthday, not after.

Stacie 17:10

Yeah. And you guys, we can't stress number two enough. We just told you a story about why.

Kevin 17:16

Alright, number three. Screen them. Criminal background check, sex offender registry, any eviction history. Do not focus on income and credit scores. Well, unless you're adding them on as a co-tenant, which is unlikely. Document your criteria and apply it consistently to every adult. Number four. Use a separate adult occupant addendum. This is a document that lives alongside your lease. It captures their signature, their acknowledgement of the rules, and your screening results without necessarily making them a co-tenant. Both EZ Landlord Forms and Turbo Tenant have options to help you do this electronically. Number five. Revisit at every renewal. A dependent 18-year-old in year one might be a working adult with income in year two. Think about a dependent who goes away to college, then they come home for school breaks and summers, and then after graduation, they move back home to save money. Circumstances change and your lease documentation should reflect that.

Stacie 18:28

And number six. And I'll add this one, do not rely on verbal agreements. So if you and your tenant had a conversation out front of your rental property about adding their child on when they turn 18, that conversation does not exist in any legal sense. Get it in writing in the lease and do it now.

Kevin 18:52

Yep. And you've heard us say it over and over and over again. Document, document, document.

Stacie 19:03

Okay. Before we let you go, we want to leave you with something. When you started this episode, you probably thought this was gonna be a lease technicality, you know, a checkbox, the kind of thing you'd file away and maybe get to someday. But what you actually have now is a framework. You know that the word added in a lease clause means absolutely nothing without the sentence that follows it. And you know that an unscreened, undocumented adult that's living in your property isn't just a paperwork oversight. It's a liability that does not announce itself until something goes wrong.

Kevin 19:43

And we learned that the hard way by the way, for those of you keeping score.

Stacie 19:48

We did, and now you don't have to. So that's what we gave you today. Not a checklist, but more of a decision making framework for one of those landlord moments that sneaks up on you when you're busy thinking about everything else.

Kevin 20:05

Alright, so your homework for today. Go check your leases. If you've got a teenager in one of your units, now you know what to do.

Stacie 20:14

Right. So that's our episode for today. I think we came in under that 20 minute mark. And I just want to thank everyone for being here. We love when you guys engage with us and it seems like everyone is really enjoying the content we put out. So if you do like what we are here talking about and you know another landlord who might also enjoy our podcast, would you do us a favor and share us with them? If you have it in you, can you please leave us a kind review so that we can continue to move up those charts. And as always, subscribe to our podcast on your favorite podcast platform so that every week our episodes are automatically there and ready for you to listen to. And I know none of these things really seem like a big deal, but ultimately, it's a big deal to us. Because it lets us know that you want us to keep making more episodes to share our knowledge and our experiences with you. So hit like, hit subscribe and tune in every week. Also, check out the show notes for any links to any products or other episodes that we mention here today, like EZ Landlord Forms and Turbo Tenant. Thanks again for listening, and until next time, you've got this landlord's.