I live in Kentucky & back in April my boyfriend & I moved into a house, which we had agreed to pay 1/2 of everything rent, utilities etc. On the day that we received the key my boyfriend was unavail due to work schedule so I signed the lease & the property manager told me she would work with his schedule to get him to sign the lease. The both of us called her almost daily from April 11 until May 9th or 10th trying to get her to allow him to sign the lease. On May 13th he moved out (caught cheating) sticking me with the rent. Isn't there something I can do to hold him accountable for the rent?

You can sue your boyfriend for half of everything you owe based on your verbal agreement. That would include rent, utilities. If you cannot pay the rent and get evicted the Judgment would be against you alone because you are the only person who signed the contract (lease) and then you would have to sue your boyfriend for his half.

If you are thinking that the landlord has to move against your boyfriend, he/she does not - he is not on the signed lease.

Thank you, I can pay on my own it just doesn't seem fair that we made the agreement & he leaves & thinks he doesn't owe me anything. Thanks again for the help.

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Originally Posted by jgilder

Thank you, I can pay on my own it just doesnt seem fair that we made the agreement & he leaves & thinks he doesnt owe me anything. Thanks again for the help.

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Only one way to get and keep his attention - take him to Small Claims for his half. I don't see that he has a defense and you had a verbal agreement - verbal agreements are enforceable.

I see your management company is having difficulty with the dogs and you also had problems with the lease - are they always like this?

Thank you again for your help. I am going to look into small claims - I will need to see what the max amount will be for small claims as just the rent is $4250 that is deducting what he did actually pay.

I don't think that you can hold him accountable for the rent for the months that he doesn't live there. He's not on the lease, he's not living with you, and you can get a roommate to mitigate the damages if you need to. (Think of it this way... you tell him he needs to pay half the costs, he says OK, but if he's going to be paying them, he's going to be living there. Either he's entitled to move back in, in which case he needs to pay, or he's not, in which case he isn't required to pay the bills, either.) But you are entitled to half the first month's rent, etc. since he was living there at the time.

Him moving back in is not an option, he has moved in with "the other women" & a roommate is not a option either as I have children.

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Originally Posted by froggy7

I don't think that you can hold him accountable for the rent for the months that he doesn't live there. He's not on the lease, he's not living with you, and you can get a roommate to mitigate the damages if you need to. (Think of it this way... you tell him he needs to pay half the costs, he says ok, but if he's going to be paying them, he's going to be living there. Either he's entitled to move back in, in which case he needs to pay, or he's not, in which case he isn't required to pay the bills, either.) But you are entitled to half the first month's rent, etc., since he was living there at the time.

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I think he had a verbal agreement with her - he broke the oral contract by moving out. I'm not sure an argument couldn't be also be made (in additional to breaking the oral contract) that he promised to sign a lease and (all else aside) did not and moved out instead and OP signed the lease in good faith, relying on his representation(s). He broke contract - she does not have to allow him to move back in.

She should attempt to mitigate her losses by finding another roommate but would need more info in order to have an opinion - for example, if this is a 1 bedroom apartment and she was going to share that bedroom with the boyfriend then it would be rather impossible her for mitigate her damages in this way.

Yes JudyKayTee, this is a 3 bedroom home in which 2 of the bedrooms are my children's & he was sharing my bedroom so you are correct a roommate is not an option. I am going to check into small claims, as we both called several times to get an appt. with the property manager to get him to sign the lease, even the week before he moved out my 17 year old daughter heard him leaving a message for the manager stating that he need to sign the lease. Then when he was caught cheating he just left. I left a smaller more affordable home to move into my current home because he moved in & we needed more space & he wanted a garage & then he turns around & sticks me with more rent to pay. I am not moving because I don't want to move my children again, so I pay my rent but he doesn't seem to care that it cuts into my budget more than the smaller home. Thank you for your help.

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Originally Posted by JudyKayTee

I think he had a verbal agreement with her - he broke the oral contract by moving out. I'm not sure an argument couldn't be also be made (in additional to breaking the oral contract) that he promised to sign a lease and (all else aside) did not and moved out instead and OP signed the lease in good faith, relying on his representation(s). He broke contract - she does not have to allow him to move back in.

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Well.. the tack I was taking is whether he has, in fact, broken the agreement or if there has been a constructive eviction. I'll stipulate that he agreed to split the rent. But isn't the contract that he would live there and pay half the costs? He could still do that, even if he is seeing another woman. So is the situation "he moved out, and I found out he was cheating", or "I found out he was cheating, we got into a huge argument, and we decided that it was best for both of us if he left"? The second one seems to be an eviction, which would release him from the obligation for the rest of the rent, wouldn't it?

I'm not saying that the guy was right to handle things this way. But it doesn't seem right to stick him for his full costs of the lease and deprive him of the use for which he is paying, either. And, while it might not be a comfortable arrangement, with a three bedroom apartment, one of the kids could move in with Mom, and a roommate could have the empty bedroom, so it would be possible to mitigate the damages.

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Originally Posted by froggy7

Well.. the tack I was taking is whether he has, in fact, broken the agreement or if there has been a constructive eviction. I'll stipulate that he agreed to split the rent. But isn't the contract that he would live there and pay half the costs? He could still do that, even if he is seeing another woman. So is the situation "he moved out, and I found out he was cheating", or "I found out he was cheating, we got into a huge argument, and we decided that it was best for both of us if he left"? The second one seems to be an eviction, which would release him from the obligation for the rest of the rent, wouldn't it?

I'm not saying that the guy was right to handle things this way. But it doesn't seem right to stick him for his full costs of the lease and deprive him of the use for which he is paying, either. And, while it might not be a comfortable arrangement, with a three bedroom apartment, one of the kids could move in with Mom, and a roommate could have the empty bedroom, so it would be possible to mitigate the damages.

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I guess we're not going to agree on this - I don't see constructive eviction (asking him to leave, demanding he get out). I suppose you could read that into this but that is not in what's been posted.

I do see that he gave every appearance of intending to sign a contract/lease - including having a lease prepared with his name on it, just (for whatever reason) not signing it, including not signing when the landlord started dragging his feet or being absent or whatever. That leads me to believe there WAS an oral agreement/contract with the OP.

Hope OP pursues this and then maybe she can set me straight on what the Court decides.

Ah no, the day I found out he was cheatin gi was at work & I had tried calling him with no answer - then my children called me to tell me he was leaving. It wasn't some big fight he got caught & he left. I will check with an atty. To see if I have a stand here & if I do, then I will hold him to the debt he left behind & if I don't well then I have just learned from my mistake. I am not moving my children into my bedroom - 1) that wouldn't be fair to them & 2) they are both teenager who need their own space. I will just deal with it. Thanks to all of you for your feedback.

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Originally Posted by jgilder

Ah no, the day I found out he was cheatin gi was at work & I had tried calling him with no answer - then my children called me to tell me he was leaving. It wasnt some big fight he got caught & he left. I will check with an atty. to see if I have a stand here & if I do, then I will hold him to the debt he left behind & if I dont well then I have just learned from my mistake. I am not moving my children into my bedroom - 1) that wouldnt be fair to them & 2) they are both teenager who need their own space. I will just deal with it. Thanks to all of you for your feedback.

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Come back and let us know -

Please do. I am always interested in how these things work out.

Just as a hypothetical... if he had signed the lease, and then the news about the cheating came out, would the girlfriend have any recourse if he didn't want to leave? If he said, essentially, yes, I'm cheating, but I am going to stay here and pay my half of the rent and bills, and by the way, my new lady will be spending time here.. then what happens legally?

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Originally Posted by froggy7

Please do. I am always interested in how these things work out.

Just as a hypothetical... if he had signed the lease, and then the news about the cheating came out, would the girlfriend have any recourse if he didn't want to leave? If he said, essentially, yes, I'm cheating, but I am going to stay here and pay my half of the rent and bills, and btw, my new lady will be spending time here.. then what happens legally?

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I see him staying there unless his behavior was so disruptive or dangerous that she was able to get some type of protective order to get him out - which is not the scenario, of course.

The contract was that they would share the rent 50/50, nothing about overnight visitors, dating other people (although I do understand it was implied, of course).

He COULD have forced OP into a position of telling him to get out - as you said, "I have a new gf and she's staying the night" - but he didn't do that. If she had TOLD him to get out, then it would be constructive eviction.

I believe - and I'm not reading backwards - that she was out of the house and he started to move his "stuff" and her kids told her. She never demanded that he move.

Gotcha. If she decided that she wasn't going to put up with that (which quite frankly I wouldn't)... and moved out, could he sue her for her half?

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Originally Posted by froggy7

Gotcha. If she decided that she wasn't going to put up with that (which quite frankly I wouldn't)... and moved out, could he sue her for her half?

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If she threw him out or asked him to leave, no, he's been evicted by her and the "payable to her" clock stops ticking.

He might have some recourse, say, if he paid month to month and she asked him to leave on the 15th, he had already paid for the full month, but I don't know that he'd win.

Now, if he paid in advance and got thrown out he could claim against her.