god@mn room-mates

[Apotheosis]

I live with 3 room mates, one is my ex girlfriend, the other is a mutual friend of ours from my ex's sorority.

Anyway, it appears that one of my room-mates in question is 2 months behind in rent, I had no clue, and I just spoke with my landlord today and basically served us with a notice to quit, simply because all 3 of our names are on the lease.

So, WTF does this mean?

this is the first fucking time that I have ever had an irresponsible room-mate, and apparently this one is going to fux0r us over, I think.

I got off the phone with her 5 minutes ago and she was ranting about how bad our landlord is, blah blah blah...

what i got from the conversation was about how bad a tenant my room-mate is..

thankfully, this is the only thing tied to my credit, as I made them put all the bills in their name :-D

Still, is this just one of those "strongarm" tactics landlords use to get their tenants to cough up do or am I fux0r3d?

Any advice?

[Edited on 5-12-2005 by Yswithe]

[DeV]

You need to break some legs. Is it the ex-girlfriend?

[Jolena]

Have you attempted to speak to the Landlord about possibly removing the roommate from the lease and you and the remaining roommate splitting costs until she can be replaced by a third participant? I mean, it would make more sense to do that then to evict all three and the Landlord gets his money in the meantime.

Also when you three pay your rent, are you all three paying separately and receiving separate receipts?

[Edaarin]

If you're all under one lease, then there's joint and several liability. Which means the landlord can make any one of you, any combination of you, or all of you pay him so long as he gets his money. Each of you is liable for the complete amount of the lease, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Of course, you can certainly sue your roommates under quasi contract for rent payments if you end up footing the bill.

[Apotheosis]

1.> apparently, the ex owes one month and the other owes a month. i basically just re-read the letter and found that out.

2.> The current lease is up at the end of July, and I have no intention of keeping the place or moving to a new one with either of them.

3.> our names all appear on the lease, but we all pay individually, and receive individual receipts. Hence my shock at discovering this.

Normally, my landonrd has been cool about rent. I had a situation where a client owed me almost 4,000$ and wasn't paying until I made sure he understood that was a "no-no". Anyway, I couldn't pay rent for the month for 2 weeks, let her know, and she was fine, no problems on my side.

After a brief discussion with my landlord (lady), she said that the girls have been consistently giving her the runaround for the past two months or so, so I can't exactly figure it out, but they must have pissed her off..

that's all I can say.. I would like to think that if I move out, which I can do (it would mean staying at my parents until I can move into my new place), I will not be responsible for the crap that they have created for themselves, and by default me.

[Edited on 5-12-2005 by Yswithe]

[Farquar]

The standard disclaimer applies to the following post. This isn't intended to create a lawyer-client relationship, you should retain a lawyer, blah blah blah. The law also varies by state and by the terms of your contract.

Is a notice to quit a strongarm tactic? Yes and no. In most states today, it takes a good amount of time to actually evict someone after they stop paying tent. The NTQ is the first step in initiating an eviction proceeding. You can do one of two things: follow the notice and move out (which is what most people do), or ignore the notice and continue (or stop) paying rent. If you ignore the notice, the landlord then must file a complaint in your local court. This is an adversarial proceeding, which means that the landlord will testify as to why the judge should enter an order for eviction, and you will have a chance to testify on your own behalf.

Obviously, if you pay back what you owe and continue paying rent on time, the landlord will be less likely to go to court to get an eviction, and will be less likely to get an order if he does. Also, if he accepts your rent after you broke a contract term, then he forfeits the right to forfeit the contract altogether.

Regarding your roommate, quasi contract doesn't apply because there is a contract: the lease that made you jointly and severally liable. You can sue your roommate in small claims court or regular court for standard breach of contract.

[Apotheosis]

yeah, that's what my lawyer is basically telling me right now. god-damnit.... i wish I had jihna's lawyers :sniffle:, they'd probably get me out of the contract, and force the landlord to repay me all the rent I've given her up to this point, plus my security deposit back.