Whether you have a friend visiting from out of town for a few nights or a family member who wants to crash on your couch for a few weeks, you’ve probably contemplated the rules of having a guest stay over in your rental apartment. If you have roommates, they probably have preferences for how long a guest can stay, but did you know that many landlords and buildings have a guest policy? Learn the difference between a renter and a guest, whether your lease has a long-term guest policy, and more.
What’s the difference between a renter and a guest?
Say you have a friend who wants to crash on your couch for a few nights while they’re looking for a new apartment. Before you know it, a few nights become a few weeks, and then a couple of months. At some point, a long-term guest really becomes a tenant, which can be a problem if your lease or your building has rules about the number of tenants you can have in your unit or if all tenants are required to be on the lease.
So what’s the difference between a tenant and a guest?
At the most basic level, a renter or tenant is someone whose name is on the lease and who pays rent in exchange for living at a rental property. In addition to paying utilities and rent, tenants are also responsible for upholding their basic responsibilities under the terms of the lease, like caring for the property appropriately, complying with laws, and so forth.
However, in some cases, someone’s name may not be on the lease, but they can still be considered a tenant. For example, if a couple moves into an apartment and only one of their names is on the lease, they are still both considered tenants.
A guest, on the other hand, is a visitor who may stay overnight but is not on the lease and does not have the obligations that a renter does, such as paying rent.
Examples of a renter include:
- Someone who moves in, such as college-aged children or elderly parents
- A live-in nanny
- Someone who lives on the property for several weeks or months
Examples of a guest include:
- A partner or friend who visits during the daytime or stays overnight occasionally
- A friend or family member who is visiting for a few days or a couple of weeks
- A babysitter or nanny who comes in during the day to care for children
How long can a tenant have a guest stay?
Not every landlord or apartment building has a guest policy, but many of them do. These policies are usually intended to prevent additional renters that the landlord doesn’t know about from moving in, long-term guests from violating rules such as quiet hours, additional wear and tear on the unit from a long-term guest, or renters from turning the unit into a short-term rental via Airbnb or a similar service. Your apartment’s guest policy, if it has one, will determine how long you can have a guest stay.
If there is a guest policy for your apartment, you should be able to find it in your lease. A guest policy will usually address some or all of these points:
- How many consecutive nights a guest may stay over (often 10 nights through two weeks maximum).
- How many nights a guest can spend on the property overall (for example, 14 days per six-month period).
- The maximum number of renters who can occupy the space, or the maximum occupancy.
- What kinds of guests are allowed (e.g., friends and family of the renters versus strangers from a service like Airbnb).
- How the landlord or property manager expects to handle guests who want to stay longer than the guest policy allows (such as adding them to the lease as another renter).
If a guest does want to stay for the long term, your landlord may require them to be on the lease — and your rent could go up as a result.
At the same time, having a long-term guest on your lease as a fellow renter could work to your advantage, in that it will protect you from unwanted behavior by your guest. For example, if a guest causes damage to the apartment, you may be responsible for paying for the damage from your security deposit. But if they’re also a renter, they’ll be equally responsible.
Check with your roommates
Planning to have a guest stay over? Once you’ve checked the terms of your lease or consulted your apartment building’s rules, you’ll also want to check with your roommates, if you have any. Some roommates are perfectly comfortable with having friends crash on the couch or a partner stay over, some may not be comfortable with that, and some may be fine with it as long as you pay for the extra utility costs incurred by your guests.
The best time to communicate with roommates about your house guest policy is before you move in. Fill out a roommate agreement together to determine what everyone’s comfortable with so you’re aware upfront and you can make plans accordingly. You might have a policy that overnight guests who stay in the living room can only stay for a certain number of consecutive nights, for example, or that a roommate’s partner can only stay over a certain number of nights each week.
Establishing these expectations upfront will help you to avoid unnecessary confrontation down the road and will help everyone to understand one another’s expectations better.
Before you invite an overnight guest to stay at your place, check the terms of your lease or your building’s rules to determine whether there is a guest policy, particularly one that prevents long-term guests.
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