I moved into an apartment in the middle of Sept 06, with two strangers I met off Craig's List. They are nice people, but irresponsible, and very very very messy.

Girl lived there for 3 years. Boy for 1 year. I ended up living there for about 8 months.

I never signed the lease they were on, but I paid a deposit, which was about $50 higher than the monthly rent.

They decided they were not going to pay their last month's rent, and since I was the only one who cleaned, I didn't pay either.

Their lease ended May 31, I moved out May 9. I told the landlord I would forfeit my deposit for the last month's rent.

Surprise, surprise, the landlord is saying that the apt is in bad shape, and now he wants to include me in a suit against them for the money for damages.

But, he can't sue me since I'm not on the lease, right??

PS This is in Cook County, in Chicago IL

Of course he can sue you. It doesn't matter if you were on the lease or not. You lived there and paid rent. If you paid rent on a monthly basis then by law you were a month-to-month tenant. As a tenant you are responsible for any damage you cause beyond ordinary wear and tear. All of the tenants who lived there are responsible. If he sues only you and not the other tenants then you have the right to sue the other tenants to reimburse you for their share of whatever you end up paying the landlord.

The lease does not matter, the other two were on a written lease, You are on a verbal month to month rental. You are just as liable.

So yes he can include you in the law suit and if he has proof will win.
He will show the two responsible by the lease, and you by your deposit and paying monthly rental.

Thank you for your responses. Not what I wanted to hear, but that makes sense.

Does it matter that I never talked to the landlord about moving in, only talked to the other tenants? Like, is it still a verbal lease if there was no verbal communication about my staying there with the landlord?

Also, don't know if it matters that I paid the deposit to the girl who was on the lease, not the landlord?

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Originally Posted by frankgary

I moved into an apartment in the middle of Sept 06, with two strangers I met off Craig's List. They are nice people, but irresponsible, and very very very messy.

Girl lived there for 3 years. Boy for 1 year. I ended up living there for about 8 months.

I never signed the lease they were on, but I paid a deposit, which was about $50 higher than the monthly rent.

They decided they were not going to pay their last month's rent, and since I was the only one who cleaned, I didn't pay either.

Their lease ended May 31, I moved out May 9. I told the landlord I would forfeit my deposit for the last month's rent.

Surprise, surprise, the landlord is saying that the apt is in bad shape, and now he wants to include me in a suit against them for the money for damages.

But, he can't sue me since I'm not on the lease, right???

PS This is in Cook County, in Chicago IL

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Really anyone can sue most anyone else, but the point is can the suit be successful and can the suing party collect from you on any judgement. As to who caused the damages, that's the reason for suit right. If you caused the damages and the landlord has proof that a judge/jury believes, I think they could win the suit.

Yes it does make a differece who you paid the deposit to, if you paid it to one of the lessees, then you rented or sub-rented from them, and your verbal rental would be with them ( at least in my opinion with the limitedinfo available)

The OP may have paid the deposit to one of the other tenants, but if they ever paid any rent directly to the landlord then the landlord has the right to sue them for damages.

Lisa is correct as normal, I guess the real issue is we need all of the info, who paid what, was there reciepts, is there proof of payments, and so on.

Without knowing all the details. But as noted, of course even if the other person is wrong, they can still sue you,