When my husband and I moved into the new house we are living in, the roommate was already living with us and agreed to move with us and pay more in rent. After 1 month she has now decided she is moving in w/someone else. She left some damaged property that I would like fixed. I am going to ask her to find another place to stay and that she is not to remove her belongings until she has repaired what she has damaged. What is the law on this? Her name is not on the lease, she did not pay a deposit and all we had was verbal agreement.

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Originally Posted by cchapman35

When my husband and I moved into the new house we are living in, the roommate was already living with us and agreed to move with us and pay more in rent. After 1 month she has now decided she is moving in w/someone else. She left some damaged property that I would like fixed. I am going to ask her to find another place to stay and that she is not to remove her belongings until she has repaired what she has damaged. What is the law on this? Her name is not on the lease, she did not pay a deposit and all we had was verbal agreement.

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You said she was leaving and that you were thinking of asking her to leave. Her leaving should keep you from having to ask her to leave, right? So that should solve that issue. You don't say where you live and the laws vary from state to state, so maybe you could tell us what state this is and perhaps someone or an atty reading this could give you some more info on the other issues.

There's nothing you can do, really. You cannot withheld property in return for repairing of damage, that's what a damage deposit is for. That is called theft, similar to ransom.

It's a verbal agreement, basically it has no weight whatsoever. You can take it to court, but they will dismiss the case stating you have proof of residence.