I have a two bedroom apartment available in my triplex, and I thought I had found the perfect tenant until I got the application back. The applicant listed that six people would be living there; two adults and four children (the oldest child is around six yrs old, and all of the children are girls). The children would only be there every other week due to a custody situation. My lease states the occupancy limit is four people, as I was just following the standard two people per bedroom; however, I know there are a few different ways to figure the occupancy limit. I know some formulas also use a certain amount of liveable sq ft per person to determine the occupancy limit. The apartment is approximately 1200 sq ft. The bigger of the two bedrooms is probably big enough for all of the four kids to share. I'm very new to this as this is my first property, so this will be my first time filling a vacancy. Should I adjust my occupancy limit and allow six people in one apartment or keep tenant shopping? Any words of wisdom would be much appreciated.

Let them all move in... In a year or less when you have to evict them and learn that your unit has been trashed and all your walls were used as a crayon/chaulk board and all your doors are full of stickers and your water bill is through the roof cuz you are flushing 30 times per day with 6 showers per day...

Really???????? Are you really axing this question????

And btw, go down to wisconsin legal blank and get yourself some valid leases, lead pamphlets and move-in/out checklists before you get sued...

A 2 bet unit is generally meant to house a family of adults in 1 bet and maybe 1-2 kids in other... I of course dont descriminate but ALWAYS seem to take the best/most qualified candidate... Unfortunately, never had someone with 4 kids axing about a 2 bet crib end up on top...

Peace out brudda frum anutta mutta,

Just for comparison, I believe that HUD figures occupancy as 2 per bedroom plus one more. That would be five total. I would NOT change your occupancy that is in your lease. You may be avoiding a disaster with that many people in a 2 bedroom apt.

To be fair, check out their application. You will probably find that they owe rent somewhere, did not pay utilities or something that would be a legal reason to move onto the next one. If not, I think that 6 in a 2 bedroom would be reason enough. BTW...getting the kids part time, can become closer to full time as time progresses.

Two parents, 4 kids (7, 5, 2, newborn), 750 sf apartment in family housing. That's how we were for 4 years while my dad went back to school. :o)

I would not adjust your occupancy limit. You made your limit because of a reason, right? You researched and applied what you learned to make your decision. Trust yourself, stick to your rules, if you need to just play the role of Manager and tell the applicants you have to stick to the ruled the Owners gave you and there would simply too many occupants to comply with their limit. A commonly used 'rule' is 2/bedroom + 1, so 5 would be the limit. I have a clause written onto my Lease Agreement that states 'anyone living in the property more than 10 days in a 30 day period or 30 days in a 90 day period, whether consecutive or not, constitutes an occupant'. That's what determines when I invoke the additional rent when the significant others come & go too.

Trust yourself, really inside don't you have that 'uh oh' feeling? Everytime I override mine I pay dearly.

Hope that helps.

MB, And THAT's why we screen applications!! The ones who LOOK good are not always so good when the details come out.

Stick with your criteria. DO NOT let emotion or cuteness sway you. Your job is to MANAGE the building and that means having to say NO ocaisisonally.

Your applicant knows he is over the limit. He's just trying to squeeze it thru hoping you won;t notice.

Many child protection agencies require inspections to prove the custodial parent is providing adequate living arrangements.

Many times we rent to single MEN who must have 3 bedrooms so they pass inspection to allow their son & daughter to stay the night.

4 persons is PLENTY in that apt, esp in a multi.

Partial custody can easily turn into full custody, or full time during the summer. Do you really want 4 little kids in addition to the ones already there, running around your building!?

With multis we look for ways to limit the number of persons in the building. Makes life A LOT easier!!

I have several buildings in "Low Income" areas where large families will rent a one or two bedroom apartments. This wasn't a problem until the "Government" decided to put their noise in my business and dictate new rules and regulations I must follow or I can not collect rents or evict.

New rule #1, any dependant child can move into an apartment even with occupancy limits. So a family that is a second marriage can have children from the first marriage move in with them.

New rule #2, if a child is feeling blue, or even an adult with a doctors note, I have to allow companion dogs.

So now I have a large 1 bedroom apartment with the original husband, wife and 4 kids. SOON AFTERWARDS, children from the first mirage start to move in. Now we

are up to 5 additional children and two unwanted pets.

Thank you for all of the responses. I will continue my tenant shopping then.

The tenants that I inherited from the previous owner had never received the lead paint pamphlet and disclosure or a move-in checklist, so I had them fill out a new move-in checklist as I had no idea what condition the property was before I bought it, and I gave them the lead pamphlet and disclosure the first day we owned the property. I also then drafted a new lease after reading through the WI landlord tenant laws and every lease I could get my hands on, so I think we are legal...but I've never found any official ruling about the occupancy limit in Wisconsin except in Madison. I will stick to my two tenants per bedroom; I will admit it was emotion that was making me think of possibly breaking my occupancy limit rule.

I had never thought of the water bill implications, but it would make sense for it to go through the roof.

Thank you for all of the advise.

Every time I read something like this I think about how different are expectations are now vs when I was a child and how different from most of the world.

My daughter in France has a 1 br apartment which she moved into when single many years ago. For a few years there were four living in the apartment, her, her husband (now gone), and their two children - plus a dog plus office space.

She used the BR, her two children use the living room as their BR, and when I am there (as I am now) I sleep on a couch in the room that serves as an office, dining room, living room, guest room, etc. - and it is not a big room.

When I was a child, for many years we lived in a 1 bedroom house - two parents, three children. When I was 11 we moved to a 4 bedroom house.

Now I live alone in a 5 bedroom house.