Shitty Roomate(s) + Finding good ones

Plutonium

Here's the situation:

I live in an apartment with two other roommates, let's call them shitty roomate and inconsequential roomate. A few months ago, around spring break, I communicated to the two of them that I would be moving out at the end of the quarter (about two and a half weeks from now), and that they could either move out as well and we can vacate the apartment, or they can keep the apartment and get new roommates.

One of them also said that they would be moving out as well, but the other said that he would be keeping the apartment, extending the lease, and getting new roommates.

The procedure for that situation would be for me to sign a request for removal from lease form when I want to be removed from the lease, have everyone sign it, and I'm out.

However, last night, the shitty roommate suddenly tells me that he would not be keeping the apartment. This means that instead of me getting out of the lease, we now have to give 30 days notice. I immediately forced their lazy asses them to sign the intent to vacate form to give our 30 days, but herein lies the problem: An extra half-month or so of rent needs to be paid, and now the shitty roommate won't sign my request for removal from lease, because he's a douche-bag and won't man up, and insists that we all have to pay for the extra rent, which unfortunately, I'll probably have to do so because he won't release us from the lease.

Now, I know this is partially my fault for not immediately getting his signature two months ago and then dating it on the date that I want to get out, and I have learned a lesson that I should have learned long ago: Don't trust idiots to stick to their word, get stuff in writing.

So my question is twofold:

A) What should I do about this?

B) Any tips for finding people who don't suck, or any awesome PA'ers out there in the UC Irvine area looking for an apartment in the fall?

OremLK

Personally? Even though the guy is an ass and deserves to pay the whole thing, I'd rather pay my 1/6 of monthly rent and just never talk to the dude again, than blow the whole thing out of proportion. If he's as much of a jerk as you're making it sound like, I sincerely doubt you're going to just "convince" him to do the right thing. That leaves you, what, talking to the landlord (you could try it, I wouldn't expect results) or legal recourse. In the case of the latter, is it really worth it?

Plutonium

I'll probably have to end up paying, but he'll also be getting the stinkeye and I'll be eating his food in the fridge for the next few weeks.

JNighthawk

Yay! Passive aggressiveness solves *everything.*

If you put sarcasm tags on yours, I'll put sarcasm tags on mine.

Doc

Just be glad that you discovered that they are shitty at the end of your lease instead of the start.

Trillian

And be glad they weren't too offensive.
Boy have I had fun with offensive roommates.

Makershot

Give your landlord a call and explain the situation. It's worth a shot, at least, and maybe he'll have some sympathy.