Any Lawyers/advice

[purple]

I am so glad I can ask for advice about this on here. Thanks for listening and advising!

Long story so here goes. My dd's roommate got a 3 day eviction notice (told on by my dd) from their shared apartment. She moved out (that's the good news) The roommate is still liable for the rent until the lease is up according to the lease. The rent is due from Feb, now March and April. She and her cosigner refuse to pay. My dd and her cosigner have to pay the whole amount or my dd gets a 3-day eviction notice too. We were told to take her to small claims court (never done that before). A lawyer said you can't do that until after the lease ends and then you can show them my dd paid both rents.

The manager has tried to get them to pay but they ignore it. The manager can't take them to court/collections until the lease is up or if my dd gets evicted. My dd can be evicted and still be liable for all the rent until the lease is up. She had to use a charge card to pay (first time ) and her paycheck, with not much left for the month to live on, so as not to be evicted. The amount was for what the roommate already owed. My dd was never late each month but the roommate was late everytime. We have written proof of everything.

The roommate got an unknown, random male to call my dd to see if he could finish out the lease. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE JOKING?!? My dd has decided to move back home for the summer. She can't get a new roommate for less than 2 months this time of year nor does she want to find a new roommate for another year.

Her roommate, 19, has been caught with alcohol, pot, shoplifting, passed out naked with 2 young males going in and out of the apartment (my dd had to flee and bunk in with someone that night). Many more disturbances but those are the really bad ones.

Now you see why my dd had to turn her in, she couldn't put up with it another month.

Anyone out there had experience like this? I hope not, for your sake. Any ideas would be great...THANKS!!!

[ravenwoodglass]

Yes we ran into that unfortunately. I am afraid I am not going to be much help as we ended up moving him home and we ended up having to cover the remainer of the lease. The roommate got to live there for free until the lease ran out.

My DD had a similar situation where the problem person left and she was able to find someone to sublet the other persons portion. Is your DD is college? If she is perhaps she may be able to find a sublet through the school.

If she moves back home the landlord can only charge her for the time he wasn't able to find a tenent. Laws differ in different areas but here the max she could be charged for 3 months.

You may want to suggest that contact a Legal Aid society if your area has one. They can provide some assistance in some instances.

[purple]

Thanks for your reply. My dd is not in college this year. She doesn't know of anyone that could take over her lease thru the end of April. We tried to get finacial aid but they said they would only help if my dd lost her job or if she continued to live in the apartment. The amount of rent the roommate owes is about 2 3/4 months of rent/fees. My dd is caught up on her part of the rent and paid her ex-roommates part yesterday to avoid any late fees or an eviction. The good thing is my dd gets to live in the apartment alone for 2 months

Its to bad people can't be honest and law abiding. It sure messes up alot of peoples lives.

I'm sorry you had to go thru all of it and to top it off, your sons roommate got to live there for free

I am going with her next week to see what small claims court is all about and I will ask them about the legal aid. Thanks for the info!

[jerseyangel]

Oh Purple, best of luck to your daughter on this whole thing. Never having been through this before (thank goodness!), I can't offer any practical tips but I just wanted you to know I was thinking about you

[tarnalberry]

I'm certainly no lawyer, but as far as I know, she doesn't have much recourse here. They didn't each sign agreement with the building owner to pay half of the rent, they signed together to pay full rent. The agreement between themselves on how they split the rent is their own business, unless they created their own legal contract between them (which still wouldn't prevent your daughter from owing on the lease).

It might be worth another round with the building manager asking about breaking the lease early (and the possible penalty that would incur), or asking him what other options you guys can work on together.

[purple]

  jerseyangel said:

Oh Purple, best of luck to your daughter on this whole thing. Never having been through this before (thank goodness!), I can't offer any practical tips but I just wanted you to know I was thinking about you

Thanks!

[ang1e0251]

My DD went through this also although your daughter had some very serious behavior issues that mine did not have to deal with. The benefit for us was she was rooming with four and the others backed her up. We were fortunate that the mother did not know this was happening. Finally DD had to call the mom directly, naturally DD had put all the utilities in her name! The mother was put out, trying not to understand that the lease had been signed for the whole lease period and the girl had also verbally committed to the utilities. My daughter agreed that they would continue to try to fill the vacancy, hard in the middle of the school year. It ended up the mom paid the rent and a portion of the utilities and for a short time they found another roomate. My fear was that the mom would refuse to pay anything leaving DD responsible. She was also told to go to small claims.

I believe it is simple to go to small claims court. I have never done it but I did have to evict a tenant and it was easy to do. Good luck to you.

[purple]

  ang1e0251 said:

My DD went through this also although your daughter had some very serious behavior issues that mine did not have to deal with. The benefit for us was she was rooming with four and the others backed her up. We were fortunate that the mother did not know this was happening. Finally DD had to call the mom directly, naturally DD had put all the utilities in her name! The mother was put out, trying not to understand that the lease had been signed for the whole lease period and the girl had also verbally committed to the utilities. My daughter agreed that they would continue to try to fill the vacancy, hard in the middle of the school year. It ended up the mom paid the rent and a portion of the utilities and for a short time they found another roomate. My fear was that the mom would refuse to pay anything leaving DD responsible. She was also told to go to small claims.

I believe it is simple to go to small claims court. I have never done it but I did have to evict a tenant and it was easy to do. Good luck to you.

Sorry about your situation. Yesterday we went to see about legal aide but the said they couldn't help b/c both girls were on the lease. We went to get paper work for small claims. We'll see what happens next. Thanks for your reply.