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Problems with an (ex)roomate and rent
EmperorSeth
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I recently developed a financial situation. My former roomate, who still is obligated to pay the rent despite moving out in February (we signed the contract in July,) yesterday told me he couldn't afford to pay it. He got a house with his girlfriend, and thus has a mortgage to deal with, and they're getting married in the fall. This is problematic from the start; my rent will effectively double, becoming nearly half my salary after withholdings, insurance, 401K, etc. But at the same time I don't want my friend to go homeless or whatever will happen. I think the sticking point was that I was supposed to look for a roomate in the meantime. However, there's a good chance I won't even be living there when the contract comes up in July, which means I had to find a roomate for what would have been four months in the best case scenario. I don't think it's likely for me to find a roomate for such a short span of time, though I at least tried among my friends, and frankly I don't know if I could trust a stranger I'd meet for such a short-term situation.
So what do I tell my friend? I'd have to look at the contract with the apartment to see if I even can force him to pay his half, and even if I did, I don't necessarily want to lose a friend over it, but I don't want to lose so much money, and I don't know if he could even pay if forced. I was thinking about just paying it but treating it as a loan, but I'm not sure if my friend would accept it, either.
So what do I tell my friend? I'd have to look at the contract with the apartment to see if I even can force him to pay his half, and even if I did, I don't necessarily want to lose a friend over it, but I don't want to lose so much money, and I don't know if he could even pay if forced. I was thinking about just paying it but treating it as a loan, but I'm not sure if my friend would accept it, either.
You know what? Nanowrimo's cancelled on account of the world is stupid.
EmperorSeth on
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Out of curiosity, do you have "Welcome" tattooed across your chest?
If he gave you a months notice or so on him moving out, then you had some time to work things out and figure out a plan to get or at least look for another person to take his place, not causing any monetary issues or trying to alleviate them.
If he gave you like, a weeks notice, tell him he has to find a replacement or at the very least, help with the rent until one is found while you both look.
EDIT: I suppose you could contact whoever your lease is from and ask if there are any ways you can get out of this lease earlier, but they aren't obligated to do anything to help you since you did sign the lease with a timetable on it (I'm assuming). Just be careful though, it's always possible, hopefully unlikely, that they may continue charging you until the lease is up even if they found someone else to rent.
Seriously, unless this guy gave you a kidney at some point in your life, he owes you money.
I don't think anything else needs to be said. I can understand not wanting to lose a friend, but if the guy just moved out solely so he could buy a house with his gf, then fuck him. Couldn't he have waited till after the lease was out to do that?
I would never do that to my own friends, especially if I signed a lease.
Also, tell your ex roomate you're doing this, don't just suprise him with it. I know he kind of did that to you, but let him know he has an option to make it right.
I can't lime this any harder. You are not obligated to do shit if he is on the lease - you should not be collecting from him, or paying part of his share, or anything. If the landlord has a problem, he can talk to your friend about paying his half. Let your friend know that you are not going to pay his share of shit - why the fuck did he move out and BUY A HOUSE without making some kind of arrangement on the place he's renting. Seriously stupid.
You need to let your friend know what his actual responsibilities are - he is on the lease and is therefore obligated to pay his share of the rent. If he has a problem with that, then the rental company/landlord will be contacting him. You should not be acting as a go-between.
And like everyone's said, make sure you document all this as it happens, too. You're dealing with a friend, but you don't deserve to be shafted out of any money here.
It depends on the wording of the lease. I've had leases where there was explicit indication that if one of the people on the lease couldn't contribute their share, it was up to the others to make up the difference. This screwed me over majorly, as our security deposit was treated as a collective unit as well, so when one of my roomates burned a piece of furniture in his room (in the middle of the night, while he wasn't even home no less), the rest of us forefited out deposits as well. I should have called bullshit on the land lord on that, as there's no way that mantle cost $1500, but what's done is done I suppose.
You could pay him rent while you stay there, minus what he owes you on the current lease, and it will help him out with initial mortgage payments while he has to plan and pay for a wedding.
I'm in a situation where I'm about to fuck over my roommates pretty good (though to be honest they have been dicking me pretty hard too), but probably wont post about it unless someone asks :P
MWO: Adamski
Of course, sea shanties are unnecessarily harsh sometimes, so maybe you should just bring up the possibility of doing so and making him fix up his own mess, or at least finding a way to bail you out of it.
This.
This is why people end up in small claims court suing former roommates for rent. The landlord will go after whoever's on the lease to get the balance paid, if you signed a lease that says you both are under "Joint and several liability." And I'm betting you did.
With all this, as others have mentioned it all depends on your state laws and how the lease is worded and signed, BUT if you have to go after him in small claims for his portion of the due I'd say you'd have a pretty good case. Its not like he just up and left overnight on a whim, he's had to have had this in motion for some time. Premeditated if you will.
No man should have that kind of power.(Twitter)
You do NOT want the responsibility of the small claims court claim. What people don't know is, that while its cheap and easy to file a claim, if you win, you still need to collect.
1) You need to hire the local sheriff to serve him with collection papers.
2) You may need to take that judgement to his job, to have is paycheck garnished.
3) You may need to hire a collection agency to get the funds from him.
All of the above costs money, and time. I doubt he would take the loss and just start writing you a check, as he could have done that already. Let the landlord go after him. You are lucky that your state allows that... I remember from apartment living that each person on the lease was responsible for paying the landlord. If your roommates moved out, it was up to the remaining tenant to pay the man.. rent due was rent due, no matter how you decided to split it.
Librarians harbor a terrible secret. Find it.
Yeah uh, don't base your decision off this show. That's all I'm gonna say.
And sometimes the threat of small claims court is enough to get people to write a check.
That's really the key. It's not about actually doing it or not doing it; it's whether they believe you WILL do it.
Sometimes... but all I'm saying is that a small claims win != money in your pocket. you still need to actually collect those funds, and its better for the landlord himself to do so, rather then for the OP to sue, collect, then pay the landlord. The landlord will not be so forgiving with the timeframe, he still expects rent in full at the same time every month.
Librarians harbor a terrible secret. Find it.
At any rate, a lawsuit is out of the question. This is a circumstance where I might lose a friend, but if I go that far, it's guaranteed. And what's the point? If he loses, he still won't have the money to pay me back. Yay, for $1000, I get to drive someone out of their home or force them to cancel their wedding. That's a real fucking hero moment for me.
Well, I haven't had the chance to get the contract or talk to the manager yet; work has kept me late past office hours all week, but I can get there tomorrow. After that, I think I'll email him and try to figure out things from there. I agree that it's not fair to me to pay this money, but I'd rather deal with this amicably with him than waste time and money on a court case.
Remember, getting a house bought is not an overnight venture, it takes some time. Did he give you any notice from moving out?
Regardless of what you do, you should be looking for a roommate right now unless you don't mind paying for the whole thing yourself. You also mentioned you might be moving out earlier then what the lease you signed had dated? You better make sure you either find someone willing to live during those times or talk about ending the lease earlier when you can meet the manager.
Friend signs a lease with you.
Friend breaks lease agreement leaving you in the lurch.
Friend buys a house with your money. (I say your money because if he's abandoning the lease in order to afford a mortgage, he's buying the house with your money.
Friend doesn't offer to pay the money back.
This is a friend I'm glad I don't have. I guess it's all good if you're okay with that though. Just remember that if you do nothing, you're the one with the eviction for non-payment on your record. He's already got his mortgage and his house and is building equity. You're just screwed.
If you want to be a nice guy, fine, but don't let this guy walk all over you.
I'm not sure if you saw this suggestion or not. Essentially:
1) loan the roommate the money to cover the rent while you get out of the current place.
2) Move into roommates new place, paying a fair amount of rent, deduct the amount owed to you from the rent you are paying him
3) Everyone profits, you arent having to carry the burden of an entire apartments rent yourself, also dont have to find a new roommate who may or may not be shady, also your roommate gets some assistance from you for paying for his mortgage / wedding possibly by having a renter in his new house.
MWO: Adamski
I think we're missing a point here. We were discussing this general plan since last November, and he didn't move out until this February. He's been faithfully paying his half of the rent since then. I don't think it was his brilliant scheme to pay rent and mortgage for 3-5 months so he can avoid paying the other 3. He probably just didn't think things through enough or was overly optimistic, and either he expected he'd find me another roomate by now or the cost of home ownership and/or the wedding surprised him.
And no, I won't move out before the lease date is up; I might move out when it's up, and thus not renewing the lease. That's why I'm not looking for a roomate yet; that roomate might very well be here for all of two months.
I could ask for a lock, but I planned on updating after this weekend, when I have the contract run through and I talk to the roomate again, giving me some time to come up with a plan.
It's not a horrible plan, I guess. The response was a bit anachronistic given the other responses this thread got. On one hand, my original idea was to move out of this place not only because I lack a roomate, but also because I hate my job and I wanted the chance to try out city life; the suburbs did nothing but kill what little social life I had. But that's another H/A thread entirely, or maybe two. On the other hand, this means no lease or contract, so if I did get a job and thus an apartment in the city, I could move out pretty much any time I wanted.
Of course, this wouldn't be me living with my roomate. This would be me living with my roomate and his girlfriend. That could get a bit...awkward. Oh, and there would be potential pet issues.