document updated 16 years ago, on Dec 5, 2009
Since the lease is held jointly, what do I have to do to get out of my part of it?
- larger issues:
- would I be able to get another apartment on my own, since my credit is so bad?
- would the landlord be cooperative with this at all?
- maybe, probably not
- "You need to have a serious talk with the other two roommates"
- "When I broke my lease with my sister in California, I was given the option of (a) continuing to pay the rent until the lease was up, or (b) finding a new roommate, and then paying the apartment a $300 fee to have my name struck off the lease, and replaced with the new roommate's. And I would be paying rent until the new roommate was found, naturally. Either way, the apartment will want their money. Not paying rent would have landed me (and my sister) in court."
- "Been through this myself. You need to find a roommate, pronto. It's your responsibility to find one, not your roommate's. Talk to your management company and tell them that it's your intent to find a replacement roommate. Keep them in the loop... get the application paperwork from them and have it on hand for anyone interested to complete. There's what the law says and there's what a landlord can do to help you if they see you are genuinely trying. They aren't going to just waive your rent or your responsibilities, but you might be amazed at what a friendly property manager can do to help you."
- "How this should go down, IMHO, is you both agree to end the agreement and then your roommate signs a new one where only he is responsible. Problems with this: he might not meet their employment requirement; they might increase the rent; or they might not want to rent to just one person."
- "Unless you are both vacating the unit, your notice is meaningless. It's not their problem if you leave, someone is still responsible - and that someone would be you, since you signed the document - for timely payment of ALL of the rent monies due."
- do I have pay a penalty to the landlord?
- talk to the landlord, explain:
- she can't afford the place (unless he's willing to take Section 8 vouchers)
- she's becoming angry and has damaged the walls twice already
- I've been affording the place all by myself for quite a while
- I have a job and she doesn't