Telling landlord that you're having another

[Erac]

Not sure if this is the right place to post, but wondered if anyone told or deliberately not told their landlord that they were expecting a(nother) baby. Our lease is up for renewal soon. While it'll be a little cramped with DC2 in our 1.5 bedrooms, we'd prefer to stick it out for another year for various reasons. The landlord is long distance and fairly absentee. We're low maintenance tenants in our view: pay the rent on time, take care of minor repairs ourselves, only call him if it's something fairly big that we'd want to know about if we owned the place (e.g., leaking roof) and he should pay the expense for.

I'm inclined to just tell him as otherwise it'll make me paranoid and feel like I'm hiding something because we had to list the residents on the original lease. But my DH thinks why bother.

[bigkidsdidit]

I'm expecting #2 too. It hadn't even occurred to me to let the LL know! If you already have a child, it's a bit different to going from 0 to 1 isn't it, in terms of child proofing etx - so I wouldn't bother.

[muffins]

How many weeks are you? I'd probably not say til after you did lease renewal if it's still early days x

[sydlexic]

I am a landlord and would not expect to be told.

[Flisspaps]

What makes you think the LL will want to know?

[Erac]

Thanks for the quick responses, which are helpful and somewhat reassuring. I'm due at end of March, lease renews in end-April, so we might sign before then. The topic came up both because of the renewal and also because one of the safety certificates is expiring and LL wanted to bring someone in to re-certify during the exact week that I'm due. I just said that was a really bad week for us (true!) and gave some alternative dates.

[Marcheline]

I really wouldn't worry about this. You're not under any obligation to tell your landlord.

Ask to negotiate a renewal now, it's a legitimate time frame. Also, technically, you don't actually have to sign a renewal - as tenants, you can just up an leave on the last day of your tenancy, but your landlord would have to give you written notice for the otice period stated on your contract, even if you stayed after the contract ran out.

Try not to worry about this, you have enough to worry about :)

[worsestershiresauce]

Errr actually you should tell your landlord, for all manner or reasons, not least because they have a right to know how many people are living in the property. They may need to update insurance and mortgage documents etc. They can't turf you out for being pregnant, so tell them. That aside it would be extremely rude not to. I'm amazed at all the people who don't think you should. Really? You people really treat your LLs like that? I wouldn't.

[craftycottontail]

If you should tell a landlord does that mean everyone else should tell their mortgage company?

I can't think of anything you sign up to as part of house dwelling/overnership where you specify how many people are going to be living in a property... Except maybe for water bills if you don't have a meter?

Having rented several places in the past I probably would tell a landlord just out of courtesy - would be a bit awkward on moving out day to introduce a baby then!

[CokeFan]

I'm a landlord and, while I wouldn't "need" to know about another child, it'd be a nice courtesy. As craftycottontail said it would be weird to find out later on.

I think I'd be a bit uneasy if it was another adult moving in, although I'm not sure what I'd do about it.

[redredwine84]

I agree with the above, it's courtesy just to let them know.

[Marcheline]

A landlord only 'needs' to know about occupants aged 18 and over, and those occupants should all be on the tenancy agreement.

But a landlord doesn't need to update insurance or mortgage documents if you have a baby. We told our landlord when we were expecting DD2 but mainly because it meant we needed to move out! Our new landlord knew I was pregnant again. We're also landlords and I would like to know if our tenants had a baby, so we could send them a card and a present, but I don't feel that they would have a duty to tell us.

[ohmentalnessisme]

It never even occurred to me to tell our ll about dc2 and we had a homebirth! We look after the place, pay the rent on time and don't piss the neighbours off, surely thats enough?!

[CokeFan]

That would definitely be enough for me, ohmentalnessisme! I've got a good tenant at the moment but I've had some horrors in the past (including two young brothers who trashed the place - spray painted the walls, had fights, threw rubbish over the back walls, destroyed the furniture, had the police called at least 20 times, left the place a tip when they were finally evicted)