Need some advice with roommate trouble

[CyFi6]

Alright well I am sure this is a rather common problem, but I am young and have no experience with this sort of stuff, this is the first place I have lived away from home.

So here is the deal, I live in a two bedroom apartment, one bedroom is mine, and the other is my roommates. We are both on a shared lease, so we are both equally respoinsible for submitting the full rent payment to the apartment. I am on a 12 month lease currently and about halfway through. My roommate never talked to me much, he was rather reserved/kept to himself, and I am rarely home anyhow so we never ran into each other much. At the beginning of Dec. he gave me his portion of the rent and left me a note stating that he had to move out by the end of the month. I talked to him shortly after asking him what was going on etc and he said he could no longer afford the rent and needed to move somewhere cheaper, and I informed him that he was responsible for either continuing to pay rent or finding a roommate to take over his portion of the lease, he agreed.

He physically moved his stuff out around mid to late December. I kept on him via phone and text about how it was important that I recieve the payment on time etc, and he paid the January rent on the 1st as he was supposed to. Days go by up until now and there is still no roommate. I contacted him and he told me a sob story of things going on in his life (sure I can be sympathetic, but responsibilities are responsibilities) and asked if I could sign him off the lease, and informed me he would be paying February rent as he has not found a replacement roommate. I of course told him I would not sign him off the lease and that he is still responsible. I have been searching for a roommate myself, and have not been able to find an appropriate replacement.

Here is my question, what do I need to do at this moment in order to prepare for what may happen. Come February or March, if I stop receiving money and he disappears, what do I do from that point? I know I can't take any action until he has actually refused payment or does not pay, but what can I do starting now to ensure that my ass is covered in case something like this happens as I suspect it very well could. Should I write up some sort of plan of intent and have him sign it? What kinds of things should I include? I have records of most of his payments, though some were paid in cash with no receipt. I have all bill records etc.

I have been screwed before and will not let it happen again. Should this have to go to court, it will, but because I have never dealt with anything like this or been to court etc (never been inside a courtroom...) I am kind of ignorant when it comes to this stuff. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[IBoughtASupra]

Have you spoke to your landlord?

 

[mnracer550]

definitely speak to the landlord, i had this same thing happen 2 me when i lived in phoenix. alot of time they would let you switch to a studio appt. or something to that extent. Also, do each of you pay rent to the landlord or is it one collective payment?

 

[CyFi6]

Have not spoken to the landlord yet, but it is a rather large company that runs this place along with other apartments in the valley, they can be difficult. The rent is paid by me in one sum, so I collect rent from my roommate, then pay the apartment complex, but because we are both on the lease, he is still equally responsible (if either of us decide to ditch the place and run for it, the apartment will come after one or both of us, so I am just as responsible to make sure the full amount reaches the landlord as he is).

 

[IBoughtASupra]

Why would they come after you if you are the one paying, its the other guy who left. Sounds dumb.

 

[CyFi6]

I know, just how it works unfortunately. If they don't get their money they will go after whoever they can, and I would be the likely target seeing as I am the one who normally submits the payment, and I still live on their premises. I would likely be evicted and fined heavily if I were to only submit my half of the rent.

 

[IBoughtASupra]

Get him to sign a document or better yet, get a recorder and record a conversation of him saying he can't pay and has moved out so if it does go to court you will have some solid evidence. Get a good recorder not a cheap one that will make everything sound like its from a million years ago, that will be solid proof.

 

[OneJArpus]

FYI, he was suppose to notify the company (NOT YOU) that he could not afford it and has to move. this will break his portion of the contract (lease) and they can sue for the balance of the lease or come to an agreement (IE: find roommate) but it would put more fire under his ass to do because its a major company vs YOU. They have pull with hiring lawyers and scare tactics. I would notify the company ASAP as it does effect you but hopefully they can put you some where that fits your budget.

 

[OneJArpus]

Also, continue to make payments but make sure you mark on the check (payment from :your name) that way they know you are paying your half still.

 

[IBoughtASupra]

Yes, check would be a good way to pay as cash has no receipt unless they give a receipt saying you are paying your half.

 

[mkiiichip]

Find a roommate, fast. That's the only way this is not going to end up costing you way more than you hope (late fees, back rent for the other guy, poor reference, etc).

Renters dont care who pays what as long as its paid in full, on time. So at the beginning of the month that he doesent pay, now you owe his half, and the late fee. Its not really fair, but he is out of the picture, and you are still in their place. They still have some leverage on you.

The other option is break the lease, and bail with him.

 

[CyFi6]

I will contact the apartment office tomorrow. I am not sure what you guys are saying is correct, I don't owe only my half of the rent, I owe the full amount, just as my roommate does. We are not only individually responsible for our half, we are both responsible for the full amount, and with the lease agreement my roomate has agreed to pay half the rent and utilities. Now, if he doesn't uphold himself to that contract it is my personal responsibility (if I want to keep myself from being sued and evicted) to sue him, not the apartment complex's, and they will sue one or both of us if the FULL rent amount is not delivered to them on time. Anyhow, I will ask them to pull the lease agreement and let me look over it and talk to them about my situation, I am sure they have experience with this. Maybe I am not fully understanding how the contract is set up, but this is how I understood it to be from the beginning. I'll let you guys know where I stand at that point.

 

[suprarx7nut]

You've got it right. Generally BOTH parties are responsible for the full rent. It doesn't matter who pays or who doesn't pay. If rent isn't paid in full, it's bad news for BOTH parties and their credit. This is a part of why random roommates can be trouble.

I'd tell the apartment office ASAP. I've never lived in a place where it's ok for one party to simply "Vacate". Even if he does find another tenant, the complex needs to know who the hell is living in their place. You guys could be in serious shit if you take it upon yourselves to find a new roommate without notifying the complex prior.

I've sued a landlord in the past and dealt with 5 different leases personally and I take them rather seriously. In some of my previous leases, having a non-approved tenant living in the property was an immediate eviction, loss of entire deposit, and possible fines for the remainder of the lease. Meaning if you're halfway through your lease, you could be liable for 6 months rent for a place you wont be living in. Not to mention the whole immediate homelessness...

Talk to the management, get them on your side if possible and get a copy of that lease and ensure your old roommate abides by it to the tee. There is usually a very well defined process in the event a tenant wants to leave.

 

[te72]

Try and get a different living arrangement with the landlord sir. It's possible, although unlikely given the market in Phoenix at the moment, that they might need an apartment like yours for someone who needs the room.

That said, I can only suggest to only room with people you know outside of the arrangement (all my roommates were either school-mates or members of the AZ Supra forum), if you can trust them before living with them, you should be able to trust them after the fact.

 

[Albert]

Go get the document in the office that you can sign him off the lease.

Forge his signature and sign yourself off the lease, so he is the only one responsible, then run for the hills!!!!!!!

 

[CyFi6]

Well I talked to the apartment office, they are not very interested in helping any of their tenants out, but they are very interested in the money. They explained to me all the fines that I would need to pay in order to transfer to another one bedroom unit, and told me to "keep my fingers crossed" that the roommate would continue to pay me his share of the rent. In fact, they explained to me how they don't offer any type of help when it comes to directing future residents to my vacant apartment, and that they do not have any kind of bulletin board on which I could post an ad. If they had to do it for me "we would have to do it for everyone, and we don't really get involved in that". Oh well. Still looking on advice for whether or not I should create some kind of document to be signed by both of us and what it should include. I already sent a rather lengthy text message to him basically explaining how serious the situation was and that while I hope it doesn't, if it came down to it, legal action would be taken.

 

[GrimJack]

Sounds like the management company is either a bunch of ignorant morons, or they are simply trying to use fear as a tactic to keep you paying them.

Look at it this way. If they try to be accommodating, they are likely to end up with a single tenant still paying them money - perhaps for a lower rent place with only one bedroom, but still money coming in the door.

If they continue in the vein they appear to be taking, the most likely possibility is that they'll lose *both* tenants instead of just one. They can assess as many fines and such as they like, everyone involved knows that collecting those is nearly impossible if you decide to walk.

It's in their best interest to help. If they can't see that, they deserve to fail miserably.

PS: These are the kinds of questions it's wise to ask *before* you sign the lease.

 

[CyFi6]

If they continue in the vein they appear to be taking, the most likely possibility is that they'll lose *both* tenants instead of just one. They can assess as many fines and such as they like, everyone involved knows that collecting those is nearly impossible if you decide to walk.

I'm not so sure about that one. I hear they are very quick to get the law involved and sue for not only the related fines and rent, but also for any court fees etc, so in the end they come out on top and I come out losing lots of money and a strike on my record. I have lived at this place for about 3 years now and I have noticed the management slowly get worse and worse. Honestly, I rarely need anything from them, all they require is that the rent be paid, and as long as I do that I get everything I need- a roof over my head and decent amenities. The real issue here is the roommate, but the fact that they are unwilling to go out of their way to help is really not a huge surprise to me, if they did this for everyone with a complaint they would lose a lot of money in the end (not saying I agree with the way they are running their business, but after all, they are only concerned about money.

 

[Clint]

That really sucks Cy, you should try to reach out to the AZforum and see if there might be somebody interested that or craigslist. My only advice is to keep searching for a roommate and or make an idle thread against the kid who is trying to screw you in the peepe hole... Sometimes life isn't fair for some but it shouldn’t make it unfair to us who make our payments on time, but hey that’s life right...

 

[CyFi6]

Yeah Clint it does suck, thing is, out of the 4 different roommates I have had in the past 3 or 4 years, all of them have screwed me out of at least some money, all of them. I won't be at this living situation all that much longer, so now I know I need to rent from someone else, possibly a house, where there is an actual landlord and I am only responsible for my own rent. I would say I have lost close to 1500 dollars because of shitty rommates. I cant place all the blame on them, if I was 100% on my game and knew the system in and out, I could have landed up with a slightly better situation, but my lack of experience and knowledge have played a small part (doesn't mean that it isn't their fault for screwing me, though). The way the place is set up, someone is destined to get screwed. The problem is half these people could care less about their credit, but because I do, I can't simply walk away in the same manner that they do. I have had horrible luck with roommates, I am really just sick of dealing with it, but lesson learned and my next living situation will be thoroughly investigated before I make any commitments. Its a shame that people cannot live up to their responsibilities in life.

BTW what is an idle thread? I will post up on AZSC, maybe I will get lucky.