Beginning in April 2007, myself and 2 roommates signed a lease on a 3 bedroom apt. It was a one year lease, and then month by month from then on. We all graduate this April, and naturally planned to give our 60 days notice quite soon. My one roommate, however, determined that she wanted to move out at the end of this month. Without talking to myself or my other roommate, she spoke to our landlord that she wanted to move out, and our landlord gave her a transfer of rent responsibility form that, once signed by all 3 of us, made my roommate and I responsible for her share of the rent. This form came into my hands at the end of January, as she submitted it without discussion or our signatures for some reason. Naturally, the landlord brought it to me, requesting myself and other roommate sign it to complete the paperwork. My roommate and I were stunned to see this, and simply told the land lord we had never been consulted and would not sign to be responsible for her rent. Two weeks ago, the same scenario repeated itself, and we again declined to sign it to our landlord. We confronted our roommate, explaining we would happily end the tenancy in April, as originally planned, but would not take over her share of the rent payments for the time being. She was insulted and stated that 'the land lord already said it was okay', and questioned why she should pay 'just because we wanted to stay later'. We explained that we had not signed the release of responsibility, and she replied that she would talk to our land lord the next day to straighten that out. When we came home the following day after a full day of class, her room was entirely empty and she was gone, and had refused to sign the 60 days notice agreement.

We are at a loss as to what our options are to do in this situation. She is only owing one month of her share of rent ($300). Do I cut my losses, pay her share and sign the release forms so that we can still end our tenancy on time? Do we submit a form to end tenancy without her signature, not pay her share and propose she has abandoned the unit? The main issue is we do not want her lack of paying rent to affect our credit rating.
It seems unfair to let her get away without paying, but I do not know what else to do.

My understanding is that the original tenant agreement that you signed with the landlord shows you as paying 1/3rd of the rent. If this is true, then don't worry about it, she broke her part of a contract between her and the landlord, and if it shows up on your credit record (which I doubt), You will be able to contest it and have it removed. Be sure to save your receipts from paying the rent.

If, however, the rent contract does NOT specify who the rent should be paid by, then you will have to pony up her share of the rent. Then, she had a breach of contract with you, and you can take her to small claims court (but if she doesn't have any money to pay, then it is pointless). You can probably also negotiate with the landlord, saying that you should not be held responsible for her share of the rent, and suggest that you and the landlord split the difference. IE, you would be willing to pay 1/2 of her share, and the landlord waives the other half.

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Originally Posted by leifweaver

My understanding is that the original tenant agreement that you signed with the landlord shows you as paying 1/3rd of the rent. If this is true, then don't worry about it, she broke her part of a contract between her and the landlord, and if it shows up on your credit record (which I doubt), You will be able to contest it and have it removed. Be sure to save your receipts from paying the rent.

If, however, the rent contract does NOT specify who the rent should be payed by, then you will have to pony up her share of the rent. Then, she had a breach of contract with you, and you can take her to small claims court (but if she doesn't have any money to pay, then it is pointless). You can probably also negotiate with the landlord, saying that you should not be held responsible for her share of the rent, and suggest that you and the landlord split the difference. IE, you would be willing to pay 1/2 of her share, and the landlord waives the other half.

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Thank you for your quick response! Unfortunately the rent contract does not specify who the rent should be paid by, so my landlord indeed does not care who the rent comes from so long as it is paid. I will certainly try to negotiate with my landlord as you suggested. However, without her signature, as all three of us are equally bound to the lease, how can we end our tenancy to make sure we do not have to make up for even more rent? Will it simply be left to us having to hunt her down and basically force her to sign?

You and your remaining roommate should be able to terminate your lease whenever you want, as your skipping roommate is in breach-of-contract already. If for some bizarre reason your landlord will not let you terminate your lease unless all three of you sign it, then see if the landlord still has a copy of the "transfer of rent responsibility form" with her signature on it? If so, then you sign that (assuming that she also gives up her rights as a tenant on it), and then end the lease. It is easy to imagine scenarios in which it is impossible for the third person to sign - dead, kidnapped, in a coma, etc. While those are unlikely, there has to be some way out of the lease without the third person.

You should have no problem terminating the rental as long as you give proper notice. If the landlord requires that you pay the roomie's share, I would pay it and sue the roomie, otherwise the landlord might evict you earlier.