My son's girlfriend will not allow my son to visit- Lease States 'No unauthorized guests allowed'?

And you’re sure that the girlfriend is not using all this as a way to keep things distant with your son?

Quite frankly, a good rental attorney should be able to break this from a lease, as long as your son is not a known drug user or felon or otherwise a troublemaker (not saying he is, just outlining the possible issues). Why does the landlord not like him? Has there been an incident?

Please tell us the background if you can, I feel like someone is not telling the whole story here.

Welcome to Fluther.

I’m with @zenvelo on this: at least one of those three (or you! – but you’re a jelly now, so we try to give you the benefit of reasonable doubt) is not telling the whole story, or is embellishing or omitting detail.

I don’t think a landlord can make a criminal charge out of “She allowed an unauthorized guest! Throw her – and her guest – in jail!” That’s just not rational or reasonable. If there’s no “disturbance of the peace” or worse, there won’t be an arrest, and therefore no court issues. That’s not to say that all is hunky-dory.

If the landlord wants to enforce such a clause – assuming that it even can be enforced legally – then his normal recourse is: When the tenant has broken the lease, he can take steps to evict the tenant.

But I also agree with @zenvelo that “adults should have an adult conversation” and come to a reasonable accommodation. (The police are also not going to even respond to an “unauthorized guest” complaint, unless there is a disturbance or lawlessness of some kind, which I suspect is the missing detail, or one of them.)

My son and his gf have been dating for 3 years. No drugs, he’s clean cut, they drink, so perhaps there was an argument which maybe a possiblity. Cops have not been called, but from what his gf was saying, the landlord previously (before she met my son) hinted at a ‘closer relationship’ but was not pushy or overt. But she’s a tiny lady, and his size, voice and mannerisms intimidate her. I was reading a previous conversation on here about a similar issue of landlord refusing a tenants guest, so that’s where some of my comments come from re cops, etc – see thread: http://www.fluther.com/110676/legally-can-a-property-owner-tell-a-tenant-that-certain-guests/

Generally speaking, as I don’t know about PA law, is if you rent property from someone, that property is legally ‘yours’ under law. The lessor has no rights as to who or what visits the property so long as there is no damage to the property nor illegal activity takes place. Just as they can’t just let themselves into the rented space, they have no legal control over what takes place within that space. That part is pretty cut and dried. If there is a clause within the lease regarding authorization of who can and cannot visit the lessee I would consult an attorney as that is rarely if ever a part of a rental agreement.

So, in the lease the LL statement ‘No unauthorized guests’ would be considered too vague? She shouldn’t have to vet every single person who comes to visit her, that would be absolutely unreasonable.

If I were your son’s girlfriend (a lot of ifs there, since I’m not even female), then I would break the hell out of that clause and challenge him to enforce it. I don’t think it’s enforceable. I wouldn’t even ask an attorney; it’s just too unreasonable.

I’m with @CWOTUS. Contracts are worthless until enforced. Make him fight it in court (he won’t). The police can’t charge him with trespassing if the person paying the rent wants him on the premises. If the landlord and the girlfriend are cohabiting, the rules are different though.

IANAL.

Is it an apartment or a boarding home? Often times boarding homes have rules like these and are considered legal. When you rent your home, you can usually make demands as these. When you rent actual apartments then there is usually a state policy you must follow.
My son stayed at a boarding home and he could only have visitors in the community room and no guest were allowed in the rooms. It was a private home and they rented to college students.
Landlords renting their homes to an individual may also make this a request if they are paying all the utilities and they want to discourage visitors from running up the bills.

Even fill-in-the-blank leases have this “clause. It is meant for people not to sublease or to be giving out keys to their apartment willy nilly.

If your daughter is wanting him to move in, she needs to have him on the lease. If he’ just coming over occasionally, it’s none of the landlord’s business unless there is thought to be some sort of criminal activity going on.

Him coming to visit is not trespassing and it will not hold up in a court of law.

How has this Landlord forbidden him to visit? How and why? I need more details. Did he do this via a written letter? Did he give your daughter a 5-day notice taped to her door? What is he citing as the lease violation?

Did she give her boyfriend a key? Is he coming and going at odd hours or disturbing other neighbors in some way? Is the Landlord living on the property?

It’s an apartment, not boarding house. I’ll ask them the questions on if she gave him a key, odd hours, etc. Thank you! :)

My guess is that this would be an I non-enforceable lease provision. The only exception might be if this is an apartment that is attached to the owners house. There are a few fair housing exemptions for rented rooms and religous institutions.

I just remembered that my husbands cousin rented from a townhome from the owner of the home. The HOA had really strict rules about visitors as well and they didn’t even own the property. But there was limited parking and often visitors who would drive in would take a resident spot and be towed away in less than two hours. You could only visit with prior approval and you had to either get a visitor parking pass or have a sticker on your car. If you violated this agreement the owner would get a violation ticket and if you get a few then you were fined. So he had to notify the owner and the HOA.
For a private home you can pretty much ask for anything within reason. Most leases will be upheld because the person signed the lease.
I would suggest she would just move if she doesn’t like the lease agreement.
This is a good lesson for her. Always read your lease before you sign.

Pandora, parking and visiting don’t always go hand in hand. I can se an “Authorized Parking Only” rule being enforceable, but not an “authorized visitors only” rule.

I live in PA and have a friend that rents a good number of properties and he never put an arbitrary phrase in a lease because it is completely unsupportable. Your landlord can stipulate conditions concerning sub-lease and possibly prevent you from getting a room-mate. He has no right to specify or approve your visitors.

It is much more likely that your girlfriend doesn’t want you to spend the night.

@Judi, people would ignore the visitor rule but the only way to his place was by car so it’s not like they wouldn’t find out. Of course you could have the person renting the home pick you up. The HOA in virginia can get away with a lot of crap. It really is unbelievable. But no one really oversees these rules they make. Least not statewide. That is what made my journey in looking for a home a nightmare. You can find a fine home but the HOA rules were impossible in some. The more they handled the more rules they could enforce. And you can’t buy a home in one without agreeing to their terms.

I looked at our lease provisions and I found that, basically, our unauthorized guest clause has to do with extended stay.
According to ours, you can’t have someone stay for more than seven days without permission. I assume because at some point they quit being a guest and become a tenant according to some law.
You might want to look very closely at the lease.

@rojo, Good point. I found this article about how a visitor staying for longer than 30 days can become a landlords nightmare if he has knowledge about it and doesn’t kick the person out. It is seen as he is giving silent consent to the arrangement. Now I know why most require you not have guest for longer than 30 days.
http://money.howstuffworks.com/squatting1.htm

You signed the lease agreement, right?
Then the landlord could bring that up to court if needed.
You would be out of an apartment as it seems that you signed it knowing full well the limitations.
Of course I am not in your Country, so it might be different?