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qhalm20 · Apr 1, 2012, 11:51 AM

Recently an old roommate has moved out and a friend of hers took over her part of the lease. Since the lease was out in December and he moved in September, he didn't sign the lease. His dad paid his part of the rent each month. However, we had to pay the power bill but he has yet to put anything on it. He moved out in February and still owes up close to 500 dollars. Is there any way to sue him for this even if he didn't sign the lease?

ballengerb1 · Apr 1, 2012, 01:04 PM

The old roommate who first moved out is still on the lease, right? That is the only person who had a legal obligation to pay. I have a question first, the lease ran out in Dec. Who signed the lease renewal that allowed you to live there after Dec. You can likely try to sue in small claims court but you should tell us where you folks live, laws vary.

AK lawyer · Apr 1, 2012, 02:08 PM

Originally Posted by ballengerb1

The old roomate who first moved out is still on the lease, right? That is the only person who had a legal obligation to pay. I have a question first, the lease ran out in Dec. Who signed the lease renewal that allowed you to live there after Dec.? You can likely try to sue in small claims court but you should tell us where you folks live, laws vary.

The way I read it, the lease wasn't renewed. It would have becoume a month-to-month.

They want to sue him for back rent. If he agreed to pay them $___ per month for his part of the rent, sure, he would owe whatever of that he didn't pay.

qhalm20 · Apr 2, 2012, 03:06 AM

We live in Georgia. We didn't renew the lease but stayed an extra month. I have some proof that he stayed with us but I'm afraid that he might still deny living with us because of the lease. It's not the rent that wasn't paid, it was the bills. That kind of makes it a little hard to claim.

ScottGem · Apr 2, 2012, 03:40 AM

First, was the old roommate on the lease? Was he given permission from the landlord to move out? Second, was it specified in the lease that the roomies share the power bill?

If the roomie was given leave to vacate before the lease was up or if he (in effect) subleased his space to the new tenant, then the old roomie is responsible for any costs and you need to sue the old rooomie and then he can turn around and sue HIS tenant. You can try naming both in the suit, but since the new tenant didn't sign the lease, you have no relationship with him, the relationship is through the old tenant.