We signed a 3 person lease in the beginning of April on an apartment in Hoboken, NJ. 3 people signed the lease. I paid the security in full (1.5 months rent) and the other tenants paid me their portion. One roommate's check bounced. I then paid his prorated rent for the month of April. He has no record of paying me back for either. In September that same roommate did not pay rent. He then told us 2 days after rent was due that he needed to move out by October 1st. 2 days after that, he admitted that he could not pay his rent for September. I covered his rent, began searching for a new roommate, and eventually found one to move in on the 15th.

The new roommate paid me the security directly(again, 1.5 months), which covered; her prorated rent for the month, the rent the original roommate owed, the utilities that he owed, a late fee for the rent, my bank fees for transferring money to cover the rent, the cost of replacing the locks since he did not return his his keys, and a laundry bill which he owed and for which the owner of the laundrymat was knocking on our door. The final balance we owed him after all was said and done was about $180.00. When he moved out, he left all of his furniture, dirty laundry, and made a mess of our apartment.

Do we have the legal right to keep the $180 for a cleaning service/moving his things out (as well as charging him a fee for storage for the days he left the furniture there before we finally had someone move it out)? Are all of the deductions I originally made fair?

I'm totally confused here. The bad tenant bounced the check for his share of the security. You then covered his rent for for the months of April and September. So, right there he owes 3 months rent.

In addition to this, the tenant owed a laundry bill, plus leaving a mess that had to be cleaned. So that increase the amount he owed.

Now a new tenant comes in. That tenant should have paid their share of the security deposit. Normally that amount would go to the outgoing tenant, but since that outgoing tenant owed the security deposit, he wasn't entitled to get it back.

I don't understand why the incoming roomie would be paying a late charge, the utilities owed by the outgoing tenant, or any of the other things you mentioned. The incoming tenant should only have paid their share of the deposit and the prorated rent for October.

The remaining roomies or the landlord should sue the outgoing tenant for what they owed.