Ask Me Help Desk - Subleasing controversy

Hi,
My daughter shared an apartment with several people last year at college. There was a clause in the lease not allowing subleasing. My daughter was not on the lease. The other people said that they had the landlord's permission to sublease their share of the apartment to football players for the summer, but my daughter would have to stay in the apartment unless she found her own subleaser. Not feeling safe, my daughter moved out when the football players moved in. Consequently the landlord discovered the football players and kicked them out, citing the no sublease clause. The apartment was empty all summer. I think that when they tried to move in the football players causing her to find a new place to live all agreements were off and she doesn't owe any summer rent. The other people covered her rent for the summer so the landlord was paid. Now the renters on the lease think my daughter should have to pay them back her portion of summer rent after causing her to move out in the first place. What's right in a situation like this?
BPSPJP

She is bound by any legal agreement she had with the landlord. 1. she should have reported the football players to landlord not moved out. And the entire issue would have never happened.
If she is on a verbal agreement, then she would only have to give a @ 30 day notice before moving.

Your daughter was not on the lease, so she was the first illegal sublease. If it were me I'd tell them to try and sue me, then I'd sue them for creating an unsafe environment for me by illegally renting to football players of the opposite sex. They drove her from a safe environment and she did the only safe thing she could.

If her rental was also an illegal one, then she may actually be able to sue for all the rent she paid to be returned

Quote:

Originally Posted by bpspjp

My daughter was not on the lease.

Who did your daughter pay rent to? The landlord, or the other tenants? Did the landlord know she was living there - even though she wasn't on the lease? How many roomates were there, and how many of them were on the lease? Oh yeah, where did this occur?

Quote:

Originally Posted by bpspjp

The other people said that they had the landlord's permission to sublease their share of the apartment to football players for the summer, but my daughter would have to stay in the apartment unless she found her own subleaser.

So did the other tenants lie to her? Or is there some question that the landlord DID know and then changed his mind?

Quote:

Originally Posted by bpspjp

I think that when they tried to move in the football players causing her to find a new place to live all agreements were off and she doesn't owe any summer rent. The other people covered her rent for the summer so the landlord was paid. Now the renters on the lease think my daughter should have to pay them back her portion of summer rent after causing her to move out in the first place. What's right in a situation like this?
BPSPJP

Well, there's a lot of grey area on this one. Roommate situations often turn into a mess - like this. I can definitely see your and your daughter's perspective on not wanting her to stay with the football players. You could definitely make the argument that the other roomates broke their lease with your daughter (if she paid them rent she was basically their tenant, not the landlord's.) If she paid her rent directly to the landlord, then the whole thing's a big mess - with her not being on the lease in the first place. Fr. Chuck makes an excellent point that she has liability to at least give a 30 day notice - perhaps. I don't blame her for wanting to move due to safety and comfort issues, but that doesn't mean that such a decision doesn't have consequences.

Honestly, I'd let them sue her for the money. It sounds like the landlord is paid, so he's probably out of the picture, right? If they take her to small claims court it will be up to a judge to evaluate all sides of the story and make a ruling as to who owes what to whom, if anything.

Are these former roomates kids that you / she knew, or was it just a random roommate situation? I'm just wondering if there are other parents you could talk to and get it straightened out? I have some rentals in a college town. My most successful course of action when problems arise is to get the parents involved.

Normally I would agree a 30 day notice for a month to month sublease is correct. However, and I know I'm taking license here, the unsafe environment created a situation that was intolerable. I think a judge would side with your daughters situation. Legally it does sound like she was a month to month sublet but the football players were not part of her original oral agreement. The roomates changed the playing field and I think their oral is void, she did not orally agree to room with the linebackers.

I'm just going to point out that "football players" are not "ax murderers". I'm not sure that having them as roommates automatically meets the definition of an unsafe environment. There are situations of coed platonic roommates, especially if it's for a short time like the summer. For all we know, these roommates were polite, well-mannered gentlemen.

I never said a thing about the football players behavior but having two daughters stirs my common sense. Would I like my daughter to be rooming with several males, uninvited and unknown to her? We are looking at what legally binding agreements are in place and what would be acceptable by a judge.

My daughter had shared an apartment with these girls prior to this one and everything was fine. The other girls rented a house this past year with 6 bedrooms, by code the landlord was only supposed to rent to 5 girls. He knew and was happy to have my daughter living there as the 6th girl off the lease. She paid her rent directly to the landlord. The other girls told my daughter about the football players moving in about two weeks prior to the end of school this spring. The athletes were preparing to move in and did so as soon as school was out. My daughter had to immediately decide to stay, find someone to take her place, or move out. We had been told by the girls that the landlord had OK'd the sublease to the football players and my daughter was just going to have to deal with it. After she moved out we found out that the girls had lied to her about the subleasing OK. In the mean time the people on the lease have been paying my daughter's rent to the landlord- 2 months this summer. I told the other parents to keep the $800 damage deposit that my daughter paid to them- not the landlord and I wanted to be done with it. I think that is more than fair.
BPSPJP

You are too nice, I'd go for that $800, she did nothing wrong leaving the apartment. I seriously doubt that the LL charged additional money to have the 6th person in the apartment, they each pprobably paid 1/6. However, the leasee girls actually owed 1/5 so now they are back paying what they agreed to in the lease. They lie, they cheat and your daughter should avoid them.

If she has proof that she paid her rent directly to the LL, then even if they should take her to court I would think she'd have an excellent case. Her defense would be that the LL is her LL, not them, and he's fine with her moving out and not paying him any more rent, or he would come after her.