Common Law Lease Question

[epmarshall]

Hi all,

I have just recently started living with my boyfriend in Canada (I'm from the US). In a year we would like to apply for permanent residency through common law. I want to start gathering documents early so I'm wondering how I should go about getting the joint lease.

We live in a section of my boyfriend's mother's house at the moment and pay her rent monthly. However, she does not own the house, she rents it. I'm not sure how we would do a lease like this or if it is even acceptable this way. Is it still okay to have her write up a lease with both our names on it and how would we go about this?

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Rob_TO]

However, she does not own the house, she rents it. I'm not sure how we would do a lease like this or if it is even acceptable this way. Is it still okay to have her write up a lease with both our names on it and how would we go about this?

It perfectly fine. You can download any sample of a lease agreement online, and just fill it in with the appropriate info. As long as it has landlords name (his mom), you and your bf's name, address of home, dates of residency, all signatures, etc etc... that would be fine. Best to also get it notarized/certified.

Here's a random one from a google search: http://www.freeottawainfo.com/ResidentialLease.pdf

 

[epmarshall]

Thanks for the answers! I have another question related to this thread again if anyone can help.

I'm not sure if his mom reports the rent she gets from us on her taxes or not. Obviously, I don't want to cause any issues for her regarding this, but if she doesn't include the rent money in her taxes, then what should we do? How does this relate to our common law proof?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

[Rob_TO]

Thanks for the answers! I have another question related to this thread again if anyone can help.

I'm not sure if his mom reports the rent she gets from us on her taxes or not. Obviously, I don't want to cause any issues for her regarding this, but if she doesn't include the rent money in her taxes, then what should we do? How does this relate to our common law proof?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

If the mom is indeed committing tax fraud by not claiming the rent on her own taxes, then you can always just put the rent amount as $0 in the lease agreement (common when people are living with parents). Though it's highly doubtful CIC would ever communicate to CRA about this.

Make sure that neither of you claims the rent paid either in your own CRA income tax returns, if the mom isn't reporting it.