Roommate is trying to break lease.
Bistiboy
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So to start I'll say that I live in Chicago, IL. I was just inform by several friends that my roommate had found another apartment and plans to move out. (He a real passive aggressive bastard.) We have a lease on the apartment that runs through March 1, 2009. When I brought up the situation this morning he quickly changed the subject and left for school. It appears that he is already preparing to move. I'm curious how I should approach this for a legal stand point. Should I file a claim to small claims court?
Also, at the beginning of this month (November 2009) we received a notice posted outside our door informing us that our landlord had defaulted on his mortgage payments and lender would exercise the rights to collect payments. Though they have not yet foreclosed on the property. I'm not sure how this will effect how I should deal with this. Should I talk to the bank or my landlord? Should I pay the full rent until that claim is filed? I would hate to see this fuck up my credit
Also, at the beginning of this month (November 2009) we received a notice posted outside our door informing us that our landlord had defaulted on his mortgage payments and lender would exercise the rights to collect payments. Though they have not yet foreclosed on the property. I'm not sure how this will effect how I should deal with this. Should I talk to the bank or my landlord? Should I pay the full rent until that claim is filed? I would hate to see this fuck up my credit
Bistiboy on
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Talk to the bank on the second one. Chicago does not allow foreclosures to break leases, usually. So what will usually happen is the bank/lender takes over the payments and the lease. Find out how they want you to pay and verify that it's actually true.
I talked it over with my landlord, and got someone to sublease my portion of the rent and moved out. My roommates got all pissy and told me they wouldn't let me move out unless they "approved" the person that I had move in, but I told them to fuck off, because it was my lease, not theirs.
So I'm guessing that if he signed a lease, he can sublease it if he wants, unless there is something in the lease that says that you can't do that. At any rate, I'm pretty sure he can't just leave and stick you with the unpaid rent, but it really depends on the lease I think.
I'm no expert, I just thought I would throw in my experience. I can't say anything about the foreclosure though.
But more importantly, it doesn't sound like you like your roommate, so why do you want him to stay? Do you enjoy being miserable? Use this as an opportunity to find a better roommate.
I'll stop by the bank to talk to someone tomorrow morning.
He wants him to stay, because he owes half the rent for the next five months. And it's not his responsibility to find a new roommate, when it's the other idiot that's breaking the lease.
But yeah, get some expert opinion on that bank/foreclosure thing. That's potentially the much bigger problem here.
http://www.tenant.org/
they both signed the lease, so if the other guy wants to sublet there is nothing you can really do about it
he cant bail on his lease and expect nothing to happen
you shouldnt have to pick up any of his bills or anything
If the lease is between the roommate and the landlord, then the landlord is the only party who can recover damages if the lease is broken. I'm going to guess that it's probably stipulated in the lease that if a roommate leaves then the others are going to suck up the rent. It's a contract. Everyone signed it. That means the other roommates are going to have to suck up the rent until another roommate is found or risk breaking the lease.
And on the common fucking sense note, do you really want to leave your future roommate up to someone else when you potentially have the power to get a decent fucking roommate for once? even if there is some bullshit clause in the lease that says the guy leaving has to find his own replacement, do you really want that to happen? Do you want to set yourself up to be fucked over one last time after your roommate leaves because he found the nastiest human being who can hold a job to fill his spot on the lease just to be a dick?
Sorry to be the one to point this out, but if you absolutely need to live with other people, then you need to be proactive and find decent human beings to cohabit with. Additionally, you can't expect others to do all the hard work for you and then expect to be happy about the end results.
His roommate signed a lease, which in this case is a contract stating "I will live in this house/apartment with these people for this set period of time." His roommate is breaking the contract, and it's therefore his roommate's responsibility to either find someone acceptable to replace him, or pay rent until the end of the lease. Which isn't to say the OP shouldn't be proactive about finding a new roommate, just that "your roommate is breaking the lease, therefore you are 100% in the wrong and responsible for everything" isn't really the correct way to approach this.
Pretty much everything you've said so far in this thread has been wrong.
I would just have a sit down with your roommate and explain that you can't afford the costs of the apartment by yourself, so he'll have to pay rent until the lease is up. If he doesn't you'll take him to court.
On your own time I would suggest finding a new roommate to move in.
That's why the OP needs to check the conditions of his lease to see what his roommate owes him. I don't necessarily mean monetarily, but from most roommate threads like this, it's not uncommon for the leaving party to have to find a replacement. As long as the person who's staying in the rented property also puts in a good faith effort to find a replacement he should be able to sue for damages (if need be).
But really, all his rights and conditions are part of OP's lease and state laws.
Lots of people are looking for temporary sublets. Often they're priced more expensively then longer leases. There's a whole section for them on craigslist.
Or you can just say you're looking for a roommate on a month to month basis.
Of course they're more expensive; they're short-term.
Point is he probably doesn't want to live with random Joe Craigslister who will only be there for a month, putting him into the same situation and stress of trying to find a new roommate.
Not sure if you're in the same boat, depends on state law and how your lease is set up. Talk this over with your roommate (force the conversation and possible solutions). If you have any landlord type individual you can bring this up with (possibly not because of the bank, but you never know) let them know what is going on. Many landlords will work with tenants when this issue arrives, at the very least they may accept late payment of rent and, if nothing else, you'll want them on your side if you eventually need to pursue a remedy in court.
Also, the way your security deposit gets split up (or doesn't get split up) can be pretty weird when this scenario occurs. Something to keep in mind and possibly mention to your roommate.
Talk to any nonprofit tenant agencies you can find, talk to your roommate (probably not a happy conversation, but do it anyways) and talk to your landlord or whoever is acting as your landlord at the moment.
What they'd be doing is replacing the old roommate on the lease with the new roommate. That new roommate would then be responsible for 3 months rent as per the lease. If he decides to leave after 1 month same rules as current apply, just with a different person. I'd be extremely surprised if there was a contract out there that someone could walk away from without suffering some kind of damages.