Tenant [On Lease] Moving out, Roommate [Not on Lease] wants to take over Lease. (Multifam)
The one year lease is up and month to month now.  The tenant on the lease is leaving and the roommate wants to take over as month-to-month at the same rent.

I'd like to keep the tenant, would I offer a new lease or is it better to add the roommate to the existing lease?

Any thoughts or guidance on this appreciated!
[{"id": "d8rex5b", "text": "Well, there's a lot of liability in having a person living in your property who does not have a lease, never had a lease, and has not passed a tenant screening. \n\nIf it was me, I would require a new lease.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "d8rkm9m", "text": "Start the application process as normal, get the approved. Start a NEW LEASE and have the roommate pay a deposit. Refund the previous deposit to old tenant after the relinquish possession and you terminate that lease. Start the new lease the day after.\n\nOtherwise you could have a legal nightmare in an eviction situation or deposit refund dispute.", "replies": [{"id": "d8rqxp5", "text": "This was the answer i was waiting for, thank you!", "replies": [{"id": "d8ru4c9", "text": "Don't forget to include a provision that the tenant is accepting the property AS IS with no opportunity for assessment or refurbishment of damage caused by the previous tenant. They must accept that the original condition report is the binding evaluation of the minimum standard of the return of the property.\n\nI've had issues where in a similar situation, the new roommate starts to complain about things like paint or minor damages. This provision would have helped save me headaches.", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "d8ruiyc", "text": "In general you always want a new lease - depending on your local laws, it \"guarantees\" you a period (~1 year?) of rental income, whereas the roommate taking it over month to month could leave in two months. \n\nYou could also charge a fee to do the paperwork to assign it to the new tenant and let them stay month to month. \n\nIn general it's better to get ~12 months of rent than any fee for paperwork. ", "replies": [{"id": "d8rulyq", "text": "The one option you absolutely do not want is to accept rent from the roommate without a lease or assignment. You still want to do the application process regardless, as others have stressed. The as-is provision is also good. ", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}]