Friend from college overstays his welcome

Q. I’m a renter of a single-family house. A couple of months ago, an old friend from college asked me if he could crash at my house while looking for work. I agreed and let him sleep on the couch in my den, which I continued to use. He’s gotten a job but shows no signs of moving on, despite my increasingly blunt hints. He’s never paid rent or even paid for the food he’s eaten. If he refuses to leave, can I call the police and have him removed?

A. Your question gives me a golden opportunity to explain the difference between what the law says and what actually happens in the real world, and you can guess which answer applies to you. You won’t be pleased.

In theory, your friend is a guest because he never paid rent or did anything else, such as contributing to other common expenses or duties, to make himself a contributing member of the household. If he had contributed, however minimally, he could have become your lodger or your subtenant, depending on your state’s law. (It’s important to understand the distinction between a “guest” and a “lodger or subtenant,” as you’ll see in a minute.)

For example, suppose he cooked you dinner each Wednesday night, helped with housekeeping or gave you a few bucks for groceries now and then. If he’s the only guest you have in your home, some states, such as California, would put him in the legal category of a lodger: a single renter who pays for a room, in rent or services, and has nonexclusive rights to share common living spaces like the kitchen and bathroom (however, your continued use of the den might destroy even your friend’s lodger status). Other states would simply label him a subtenant: someone who rents from you, paying in money or services.

So, now that you know your college friend is a guest, how can you get rid of him? Because he is truly a guest, a pure freeloader, then, in theory, you can ask him to leave at any time, and if he refuses he becomes a trespasser. Again, speaking theoretically, you have the right to call the police and ask them to get him out if he refuses to leave, just as you could ask the cops to oust a stubborn party guest.

Some lawyers would disagree and say that your guest is entitled to eviction procedures. They’d call him a “tenant at sufferance,” someone who is on the property with your knowledge but without your consent. It’s true that such tenants are entitled to eviction procedures, but someone can become a tenant at sufferance only if he’s first been a tenant (in legal lingo, he must first have had a “proprietary interest”). And a proprietary interest means having had the exclusive use of at least some part of the rental property, something your pal did not have. So, in my book, your college friend is not a tenant at sufferance and is not entitled to the orderly process of eviction.

But that’s all in theory. In practice, once you call the cops, you can be sure that they will hesitate to throw out a long-term guest. Your guest need only say something as simple as, “But I live here,” for them to suspect that you’re asking them to take part in an illegal self-help eviction of a subtenant or even a co-tenant. Cops want no part of that, and are likely to say, “Sorry, sir, this is a civil matter, talk to your lawyer.”

The longer your guest stays, the more likely it is that he’ll begin to look like someone who has or, in the case of a tenant at sufferance, had a right to be there. And someone who has or had a right to be there is entitled to eviction procedures.

Some states, like California, have special procedures for ousting a lodger. They recognize that people who rent out only one room in their home and share the common areas shouldn’t have to go through the complicated eviction procedures that professional landlords must follow. In California, you may terminate a lodger with 30 days’ notice; if the lodger doesn’t leave, he becomes a trespasser. But once again, reality intrudes: Even in California, a long-term lodger may look like a tenant or a subtenant to the police, and they often will not want to take part in what they fear is an illegal eviction.

Your best bet is to talk to a lawyer in your state who is well-versed in landlord-tenant law and who will, if appropriate, accompany you to the local police station, where you might have a chat with one of the officers. If you can convince the officer that you’re dealing with a pure guest, and not a co-tenant or subtenant, you might get the police to help you out.