My son & a friend rented an apartment. Roommate moved out without notice two months later. After 3 months of paying the rent on his own, my son gave 30 day notice and moved out. The landlord only wants to refund him half of the security deposit. Question - 1. if the roommate moved out without notice did he not forfeit his portion of the security deposit thereby making my son entitled for the full deposit. 2. After carefully looking at the contract the roommates name is not stated on the contract only my sons, but his signature appears on the contract.

Well, there are all kinds of ways this could go. Ultimately I believe it would come down to the EXACT wording of the lease, as well as a judge's interpretation of the contract.

Technically, it sounds like the lease was between the landlord and your son. Your son would then be able to go after the roommate to attempt to collect on whatever their agreement was. HOWEVER, I don't think it's totally out of the question that a judge could feel that since the roommate signed the contract - even though his name wasn't listed in the body of it - that he's still a party to the contract. So did the landlord say that he was planning to return half to your son and the other half to the roommate? Or is he keeping the "roomate's" half because he broke the lease?

Was the lease broken when your son gave notice and moved out, or was he just month-to-month?