A lot of it depends on the rental market in your area…as with everything, follow the money for the answer. I lived in an apartment and for people who paid their rent on time, they woudl do just about ANYTHING to keep you. If you’re in a rental market where all their units are full and there’s a waiting list, they will bounce you if you cause them any potential problems. If they have empty apartments and you pay your rent on time, chances are they will look the other way. Now the Patriot Act may complicate things for sure, obviously if you’re doing something that could COST them money and they find out about it, they might not be happy. And yes, if you get caught, you could be seen as concealing a criminal act…it could be bad. But under more “normal” circumstances, i wouldn’t sweat it. I’d say you’re taking a risk if you do it, but the way t assess the risk is to figure out how nosy are the landlords…are they they types of people who are in everyone’s business?
There are Mr. Ropers out there still. Where I lived, there was some bigwig, Mark Fillister, who owned Fillister Enterprises. He didn’t have anything to do with the day to day operations of his building, he just hired people who lived in the building and paid them with free rent. I moved in with my girlfriend and her best friend, and when the new lease was up, I asked to be added to it. I also asked to put a “buy or build” clause in because we wanted to buy a house. They did it, but basically put in all these caveats so that we had to wait for 3 months before we invoked it…at 3 months and one day we tried to, and were told that we were one day into the 3 “slow moving months”, where they don’t allow anyone to move out. I was told by a lawyer that the contract was usurous and wasn’t laid out for me, but that courts always side with the landlord.
Basically, if they want to make trouble for you, they will, but if they have empty apartments, and aren’t “family owned” but are owned by some arms length investor, they aren’t going to look for trouble. Now that’s not to say that this couldn’t come out. It’s a risk…you’re rising financial AND criminal liability…and as you know first hand, the courts are hardly about “justice” these days.