Hello RickJ,

I live in Massachusetts and have a question regarding lease agreements with more than one individual.

My daughter entered into a lease agreement with 3 other girls. She found out this week from the landlord that 2 of them have not paid there share of the rent. Also one of them is about to leave in a few weeks and move out to California.
My question is this; Is my daughter liable for any past due rent that the other roomates have not paid? Since the landlord has received rent payment from each individual on the lease, why would he come after my daughter and the other girl who have been paying their share of the rent?

Thanks
Paul

Depends on the wording in the lease. Generally when multiple people are on the same lease any one can be held responsible for the whole lease. However, if the landlord has been accepting payments directly from each tenant, especially if the landlord found the tenants (rahter than 4 friends getting together to rent an apt), he may not be able to hold any one tenant.

If your daughter did not find these roomates, then I would suggest you enter into a lease arrangement with the landlord that is separate so she won't be responsible.

If all three girls signed a joint lease, saying all of them would pay the rent, then yes she is liable.

But if the lease specifies how much each pay and lists each of them as a separate leasee, then no,

So it all depends like scott said, but I would bet if it was me, there was one lease that said all of them were equally responsible and the three merely split the bills. ( most commom) since the other way there are normally three separate leases.

This is why roommates unless they are your best friends almost never work. And why we get 100s of question like this.