Can one tenant pro-rate her rent only if all the tenants in the apartment are leaving? My sister, my roommate and I were on a month-to-month lease when we all decided to leave. Somehow my roommate managed to pro-rate her rent because she was leaving a week earlier than my sister and I. Is this possible? If we're all leaving, don't we all have to pay for the full month's rent? I could understand if she left within the first seven days of the month but she left in the middle of the month (around the 18th) and we left towards the end (around the 27th). Both she and the apartment manager said that she was not legally obligated to pay for the rest of the rent but that doesn't seem right to me. If someone could please explain to me how and why this is I'd really appreciate it. Thank you.

Your lease controls the issues between you and your landlord only. You may need a separate roommate agreement to do what you want.

Check landlordtenantlhelponline.org for more info.

So unless we had made a roommate agreement there's nothing I can do? The thing that bothers me is that neither my roommate nor the apartment manager informed my sister or I that she had pro-rated her rent. I guess I really want to know is if the apartment manager can pro-rate one tenant's rent and not the others if all of them are leaving. That's what I'm having trouble understanding. Because when I told the manager what day my sister and I were leaving, she was pretty adamant that the full months rent would have to be paid, but never bothered to mention that she wasn't including my roommate in it. So, is it possible that she can allow one tenant to pro-rate and not the others?

The landlord has a lease to make sure the rent is paid, the landlord doesn't care by whom the rent is paid.

Tenants on a lease are usually, jointly and severally liable, meaning they are each responsible for the entire rent no matter what.

Quoting that article I pointed you to: "Many tenants sued by landlords offer as a defense the fact that a roommate skipped out and left the other tenants to make up the bad roommates share of the rent. This is not a viable defense in most circustances because lease agreements are written to require payment from all tenants no matter what the roommate situation."

I just wanted to make sure...

Thank you so much for your help, though. I really do appreciate it and it did help clarify things for me. Thanks again. ^_^