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I have not signed a lease nor has my current flatmate to a lease that
was supposed to start in December and run out in June. I had an old
lease that ended in December but that flatmate moved out hence getting
a new one. Now suddenly this flaatmate has decided to move out leaving
me alone in the flat. The landlord is now claiming i will have to find
a new flatmate or pay the whole rent myself which i cannot really
aford. I cannot just leave either as she states that i had to give 28
days notice as per the old lease...
Any advice? Or rights?
I get the impression that just need to get a new flatmate ASAP or pay
the rent myself
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On Feb 4, 7:30 am, davidrdev...@hotmail.com wrote:
I have not signed a lease nor has my current flatmate to a lease that
was supposed to start in December and run out in June. I had an old
lease that ended in December but that flatmate moved out hence getting
a new one. Now suddenly this flaatmate has decided to move out leaving
me alone in the flat. The landlord is now claiming i will have to find
a new flatmate or pay the whole rent myself which i cannot really
aford. I cannot just leave either as she states that i had to give 28
days notice as per the old lease...
* * *
I get the impression that just need to get a new flatmate ASAP or pay
the rent myself
Right... or your third option is, to give her the 28 days notice she
requires, and move out.
If you don't want to move, you will have to either find a flatmate or
pay the rent yourself month by month, regardless of whether your
unsigned lease is binding. Why do you think this is somehow a legal
issue or gives you some rights that are not obvious on the face of
it? You didn't think you were going to find a way to get sole
occupancy of the flat for half the rent, did you? The landlord has no
obligation to find you a new flatmate, and has graciously given you
the option of moving out, on due notice. Other than that, the
landlady is entitled to collect the full agreed rent from whomever
happens to be occupying her flat. This is not some hostel where you
"pay by the bed" whether or not you happen to have other paying guests
as roommates or are the only guest that evening.
--
This posting is for discussion purposes, not professional advice.
Anything you post on this Newsgroup is public information.
I am not your lawyer, and you are not my client in any specific legal
matter.
For confidential professional advice, consult your own lawyer in a
private communication.
Mike Jacobs
LAW OFFICE OF W. MICHAEL JACOBS
10440 Little Patuxent Pkwy #300
Columbia, MD 21044
(tel) 410-740-5685 (fax) 410-740-4300
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In article <ja1eq3152soqa3q8p0s19tp29nc4vnm7pt@4ax.com>,
davidrdevine@hotmail.com wrote:
I get the impression that just need to get a new flatmate ASAP or pay
the rent myself
You are going to have to do that anyway. Even if you figure out
the legalities, file suit, and win, it will take a while to get
your court date, get a decision, and get to the point where you
can collect from the roommate that skipped. That is if you can
even find him, and he is willing and able to pay the judgement.
There are two scenarios here. A defacto month to month lease
may have existed since the formal lease was never signed, and
the landlord accepted your rent checks. If you each wrote
separate checks, you may be able to argue that it was two
separate leases, and you didn't break your lease since you
paid and the landlord accepted the payment. If you paid
jointly, then about the most that the landlord can do is make
you pay full rent for 2 months assuming you give notice to
move out right away. If you want to stay, it looks like
you need to pay the full rent or get another roommate to
split the rent.
The other scenario is that your roommate did give you
sufficient notice that he was leaving. This would have allowed
you to put in your notice, and you both could have moved out
without any problems. If he did give notice, and you didn't
act, then you assumed the responsibility for the lease.
The lack of any formal documentation is going to make this
very hard to prove in any event.
-john-
--
======================================================================
John A. Weeks III 612-720-2854 john@johnweeks.com
Newave Communications http://www.johnweeks.com
======================================================================
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David,
I have not signed a lease nor has my current flatmate to a lease that
was supposed to start in December and run out in June. I had an old
lease that ended in December but that flatmate moved out hence getting
a new one. Now suddenly this flaatmate has decided to move out leaving
me alone in the flat. The landlord is now claiming i will have to find
a new flatmate or pay the whole rent myself which i cannot really
aford. I cannot just leave either as she states that i had to give 28
days notice as per the old lease...
Any advice? Or rights?
I get the impression that just need to get a new flatmate ASAP or pay
the rent myself
Without seeing the actual lease, we have to make several guesses as to
its contents. However, most leases have pretty typical provisions.
Let's see if I got the story straight:
You have a signed lease that expired in December 2007.
You were supposed to have another signed lease that started in December
2007 and run until June 2008, however you never signed that lease.
If this is true, then you are on a Month-to-Month tenancy. To
terminate your residency, you have to give <x> days notice, whatever
number is required by law.
Your flatmate is responsible for giving that notice as well. But he is
not obligated to stay just because you want to stay.
Your choices are get a new flatmate, pay the rent yourself, or move out.
Lighthope
Pearls of Wisdom - "Getting used to change is never easy. But living a
stagnant life is even worse." - The Doctor (Doctor Who: The Perfection
Society)
--== TIGERS' QUEST - http://www.tigersquest.com
--== THE DOCTOR WHO AUDIO DRAMAS - http://www.dwad.net
--== A CHRISTMAS SPECIAL - http://christmas.dwad.net
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Tue, 05 Feb 2008 06:23:55 -0500 from Mike Jacobs
<mjacobslaw@gmail.com>:
Other than that, the landlady is entitled to collect the full
agreed rent from whomever happens to be occupying her flat. This is
not some hostel where you "pay by the bed" whether or not you
happen to have other paying guests as roommates or are the only
guest that evening.
*Probably* it's not. But such arrangements are not confined to
hostels and missions.
In Cortland and Ithaca, it's common to rent large houses to students
by the person (and by the semester, not the year). The landlord has
separate contracts with each occupant. In that case, if one roommate
moves out I don't believe the landlord has any recourse against the
others.
Granted, those are special circumstances, and nothing the OP said
makes me think that's the case here. But it's an exception to the
rule that the landlord can collect the full rent from whoever(*)
remains behind.
(*) Not "whomever". This error seems curiously common: "whom" and its
forms have gradually been disappearing from the places they used to
belong, and intruding into places where they have no business.
--
If you e-mail me from a fake address, your fingers will drop off.
I am not a lawyer; this is not legal advice. When you read anything
legal on the net, always verify it on your own, in light of your
particular circumstances. You may also need to consult a lawyer.
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
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On Mon, 04 Feb 2008 07:30:55 -0500, davidrdevine@hotmail.com wrote:
I have not signed a lease nor has my current flatmate to a lease that
A lease for a whole apartment, bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom?? May not
matter, but I want to have a feel for your living situation.
was supposed to start in December and run out in June. I had an old
lease that ended in December but that flatmate moved out hence getting
a new one. Now suddenly this flaatmate has decided to move out leaving
me alone in the flat. The landlord is now claiming i will have to find
a new flatmate or pay the whole rent myself which i cannot really
Did each of you pay half the rent to the landlord before, or did one
of you collect from the other and then pay the landlord in one
payment? Not saying it matters, but i"m curious.
aford. I cannot just leave either as she states that i had to give 28
days notice as per the old lease...
Any advice? Or rights?
I get the impression that just need to get a new flatmate ASAP or pay
the rent myself
Your use of flatmate makes me think you are not in the USA, or Canada.
So I'm a little leery of replying, even though the law is probably the
same for the most part on this throughout most of the world, or at
least the English-speaking world. Where are you located?
IANAAL but I was a tenant for 14 years and a landlord to my roommates
for 11 years and probably 20 roommates (I had a four-bedroom
apartment).
I've never understood why a landlord would be willing to have separate
financial relationships with more than one person in an apartment, to
collect rent separately, which seems like twice as much work.
But more to the point, I've never understood why a tenant would let
his "roommates" do this. I made sure that I and I only signed the
lease, and I collected money from my roommates (usually an even share
of the total rent) and I paid the landlord. When I went to Europe for
7 weeks, I arranged for my roommates to pay my mother and my mother to
pay the landlord. And a good thing I did, because neither of them
paid the rent while I was gone, and I would have been evicted or deep
into eviction if I had relied on them (both of whom had graduated from
law school a month before I left on my trip.
If the landlord has a separate relationship with each roommate** then
it seems to me, he's going to want the power to be able to find a
replacement when a roommate moves out. Otherwise he'll lose money.
But I don't want the landlord choosing my roommates. By signing the
lease, I guaranteed the whole rent would be paid by me, and then I
went out to find roommates I liked to help me pay.
Apparently both you and your previous roommate signed hte lease. The
lease has expired so just about everywhere in the US, you are now
month to month tenants. I would say your roommate had a duty to give
you 30 days notice he was leaving (or more accurately, that he would
no longer pay his share of the rent after 30 days) and you had to make
a quick decision as to whether you could pay all of it or could find a
new roommate. If you decided to find a new roommate, you'd have 30
days to do so. If you decided to move out, you'd have to notify your
landlord right away that that was your plan. Or you could stay days
31 to 60 and pay the full rent for that period.
**which doesn't mean they share a room, only that they share a flat
or apartment. It's a term left over from the first two years in
college when I did have to share my room with others, but I think
almost everyone uses it the same way.
Also, when two people sign the lease and they they have a big fight or
for some reason can't live together, who decides which one moves out?
By being the only one to sign the lease, you get to stay and they have
to leave. (Although I think one of my neighbors A was in that
situation and his roommate was an ex?-street thug who scared him A
into leaving his own apartment!!! But normally the guy who signed the
lease wins.
Really, do you expect to have the whole flat and only pay half the
rent?
If you are inclined to email me
for some reason, remove NOPSAM :-)
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On 2008-02-06 04:31:07 -0800, Stan Brown <the_stan_brown@fastmail.fm> said:
In Cortland and Ithaca, it's common to rent large houses to students
by the person (and by the semester, not the year). The landlord has
separate contracts with each occupant. In that case, if one roommate
moves out I don't believe the landlord has any recourse against the
others.
It seems to me that would be a nightmare for the landlord, if the usual
landlord-tenant provisions apply. What you are describing is sometimes
called a "rooming house." If I am not mistaken, the legalities in that
situation are different, at least in some areas where I have done
business.
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