{"id":8914,"date":"2025-05-06T15:50:03","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T15:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/?p=8914"},"modified":"2025-05-06T15:58:30","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T15:58:30","slug":"when-does-a-guest-become-a-tenant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/2025\/05\/06\/when-does-a-guest-become-a-tenant\/","title":{"rendered":"When Does a Guest Become a Tenant?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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You need to know who you\u2019re renting to; it\u2019s one of the reasons you have your tenants sign a lease agreement.\u00a0<\/p>

What happens when someone shows up in your rental property who isn\u2019t on the lease?<\/p>

Tenants have guests. It\u2019s understandable if someone is staying in your property for a couple of days or even a week. When they start to stay longer, however, you might become concerned. Has this person ceased to be a visiting guest and someone became a resident?\u00a0<\/p>

Your Washington lease agreement should reference visitors and whether there are limits to how long they may stay. A guest policy is perfectly reasonable, and it should state exactly when a guest becomes a tenant.\u00a0<\/p>

Here is how we approach the matter at SunWorld Group, as <\/span>professional property managers in Southwest Washington.<\/p>

Defining a Guest and Defining a Tenant\u00a0<\/h4>

A tenant is on your lease agreement.\u00a0<\/p>

A guest is not on your lease agreement.\u00a0<\/p>

That\u2019s the main difference between tenants and guests. When you have a tenant living in your property, that <\/span>tenant is responsible\u00a0for paying rent on time and preventing any damage to the home. They\u2019re required to follow the responsibilities and the terms of the lease agreement. You know who they are and how many of them are in your property.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

A guest is not listed on the lease. There is no way for you to gather information or hold a guest accountable to the condition of the property or the payment that\u2019s required to live there. Guests come and go. They do not stay or maintain a fixed address in your property.<\/p>

Why You Don\u2019t Want Guests to Linger in Your Property<\/h4>

You can\u2019t have a guest to establish residency in your property. You have not properly screened them. They\u2019re not listed on the lease. You could have trouble evicting them if you end up evicting the tenant who <\/span>is\u00a0on the lease.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

If that guest is not listed on the lease, you cannot hold them legally accountable for rent payments and other requirements.\u00a0<\/p>

Rental Laws in Washington State<\/h4>

Unlike neighboring states like California, Washington State does not have the \u201cbright line rule,\u201d which automatically makes any guest a tenant after they\u2019ve lived in the home for 20 days. Because there is no such <\/span>law in Washington, you\u2019ll have to decide how long you\u2019re willing to accommodate a tenant\u2019s guest. Maybe it\u2019s two weeks. Maybe it\u2019s 15 days. Maybe it\u2019s a full month. Write this into the lease agreement and highlight the section when you\u2019re talking to your tenant before they move in.\u00a0<\/p>

Communicating About Guests Who May Feel Like Tenants\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>


Enforce your lease. When your guest policy has a hard limit, you can talk to your tenant. Send a letter notifying the tenant that they are in violation of the\u00a0<\/span>lease agreement. You can suggest that they come into compliance in one of these ways:<\/p>

Requiring the tenant\u2019s guest to leave.<\/p>

Inviting the tenant to add the guest to the lease agreement after the guest passes a screening.<\/p>

Moving forward with eviction proceedings if the tenant does not choose one of the above options.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

If you have a good relationship in place with your tenant, a friendly conversation about the guest can usually take care of the issue. But, it\u2019s important to have the language in the lease in case you need to protect yourself from a guest who has overstayed their welcome.<\/div>

Hold your tenants accountable to the lease agreement. If you need help with this, please feel free to contact us at SunWorld Group. We\u2019d be happy to serve as your Southwest Washington property management resource. \u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That\u2019s understandable. With the online rental sites and social media platforms available, it\u2019s easier than ever to market and advertise a rental home. But, it\u2019s also crowded. Tenants are scrolling through listing after listing, and it can be difficult to stand out. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[9,12,13],"class_list":["post-8914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-houses","category-property","tag-architecture","tag-design","tag-interior"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8914"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8920,"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8914\/revisions\/8920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myaiostagingweb.com\/sunworldgroup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}