How to Deal With a Departing Roommate in your Memphis Apartment
Feb 13th, 2007 by Memphis Apartments
Remaining roommates need to cover their legal flanks with respect to the departed tenant as well as the landlord. If your housemate has left during the middle of a lease or without proper notice in a month-to-month tenancy, leaving you responsible for all the rent, your personal relations will be rocky at best. Probably the last thing you want is to have your errant roommate reappear expecting to move back in.
To avoid such surprises, try to get your former roommate to sign an agreement, making it clear that the departing tenant:
- Will pay a stated amount of rent and utilities. If you rent under a written rental agreement, this will normally be rent and utilities for 30 days from the date the departing tenant gave written notice (or left without notice), unless a new roommate comes in earlier and covers these costs. If you rent under a lease, the amount owed will depend on when a new co-tenant, acceptable to the landlord, is ready to take over. If, despite your best efforts, you cannot find an acceptable replacement, the departing tenant will be liable for the rent for the balance of the lease.
- Will pay for any damage she caused to the rental unit.
- Will pay for rent and damage no later than a stated date.
- Has moved out for good and gives up any claim to be a tenant.
But what if you and the departing roommate can’t work things out, and the departed co-tenant shows no signs of paying? If your roommate is long gone or out-of-state, you may want to grit your teeth, pay his share and forget it, since trying to find him, sue him, and then collect the judgment is likely to be more trouble than it’s worth.
On the other hand, if your ex-roommate is still in town and has a source of income, consider taking the time to sue him in small claims court for unpaid rent, damage to the rental unit, unpaid utilities, and your costs to find a replacement co-tenant, such as advertising. Then, if your ex-roommate still doesn’t pay up, you can collect what you won in court from his bank account or wages.