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happy2003 · Oct 27, 2009, 04:15 PM

2 months ago I moved out of an apartment into a new one leaving behind a roommate. Because we are in a lease and I'm a decent person I told her I would still pay my share of rent as not to leave her high and dry. Long story short her boyfriend from another state moved in with her but they still expect me to pay half.

Both this girl and I are on the lease. This boy is not. That apartment complex is strict about EVERYTHING. There is a clause in our lease that all people living in the apartment need to at least have a background check run on them or we can be evicted. The roommate and her boyfriend have not done this because they maintain that he doesn't "live" there. Except all of his belongings are there, his phone number has been changed to a local number and his mail is getting sent to that address.

Do I have any legal rights to have him pay rent? Or at least not live in the apartment? Should I tell management the situation so they can request the background check? Or am I just SOL?

I am not okay paying for him to freeload or for the possibility that we could be evicted because we are breaking the terms of the lease.

JudyKayTee · Oct 27, 2009, 04:41 PM

Go to Small Claims Court and claim double enrichment - she is (in theory) collecting rent from both you and the new roommate.

Of course, she may very well kick him out and you will be responsible for the balance of the payments anyway.

OR she may simply move out - you could be 100% responsible for everything and then you would have to sue her to pay "her" half.

I'd think it over before I did anything. I see nothing that you will gain if you complain and "he" gets himself thrown out.

ScottGem · Oct 27, 2009, 04:48 PM

I would go to management and ask to be let out of the lease and see what they say. Let them deal with the roommate and her boyfriend.

ballengerb1 · Oct 27, 2009, 04:53 PM

You agreed to pay the rent before and now want out because she has a live in boyfriend. I understand your frustartion but you agreed to pay, no strings were attached. Judy is right, watch out, if she and Bubba move out you are still on the lease, the LL only wants his money and cares little which of you pay.

happy2003 · Oct 28, 2009, 04:28 AM

I'm not worried about the money honestly... I can afford it and I planned on it anyway. I'm just really concerned about us breaking the terms of the lease. The apartment is in a very small complex and the manager while super sweet and helpful is very vigilant and good at her job. (part of why we love her and chose to live there)

There is a girl that lived in an apartment above us that was evicted because of a similar situation of her having someone living there without the apartments knowledge. They did however give her time to get the person out or follow their standards and she failed to comply.

Maybe I'm worrying too much? I just hate to have something dumb happen and then I'm in an even worse situation with an eviction or a bad rental reference.

*note* Not that it matters but my job moved me to another location 60ish miles away, that's why I moved... not just being flaky on the girl

ScottGem · Oct 28, 2009, 06:41 AM

When does the lease expire?

happy2003 · Oct 28, 2009, 07:48 AM

February.

ScottGem · Oct 28, 2009, 08:01 AM

OK, so you have several months. You do kind of have a problem here. I assume you only agreed to continue to pay the rent until the lease expired. So, unless you want to tell the landlord about the situation or alienate the roommate I would just suck it up.

But if you don't care about your relationship with the roomie, then I would tell her that you offered to continue to pay your share thinking she would be alone. But that you don't like being taken advantage of. So if she doesn't have her boyfriend pay his share, you will talk to the landlord about getting yourself off the lease.