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What my tenant rights be?

Landlord/Tenant rental concern... who pays for the empty room?

So I'm still looking for someone to move in, but I'm getting a little worried about it happening in the next week as it's such an off time for the housing search. Before I get into all the bad stuff, if you're looking to sublet- http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/roo/1607958758.html

At this point, I'm pretty positive there's going to be an empty room at my place in Cambridge. Here is my concern: our lease does state that if a tenant should break the contract early, they must pay for the rest of the term until rent can be collected from someone else.
However, my elderly landlord is not going to charge the vacating roomies out of good will, because they've lived there for so long. Initially I thought that he would give me a break, but now he is asking that the other person and I pay the difference. Now, he may not make us pay the full amount of the difference- but the question is, do I have to pay anything extra at all? The loophole is that I am staying, so I guess I'm considered the sole responsible Tenant now...

The landlord is a little behind the times and genuinely a good guy, so I don't think he's dealt with someone breaking the lease like this and thought it would all turn out with no issues (and maybe it will!). I don't want to screw a nice old stroke victim, but I don't see why I have to pay because someone else found a place and is screwing me. This is why people charge a security or last month, and if he's not going to do that, then it's his own trusting fault. Maybe I'm being bitter as he's favoring them because they're mostly unemployed, but it Is in the lease for a reason.

My assumption is that there's some Cambridge housing authority that I need to pay my rent through or something so that it's all legit. Where do I start, and should I wait until I know for sure nobody is moving in or get started on it now just in case? Also, do I need to inform him of what I'm doing?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The people who are named on the lease are legally responsible for paying rent--the landlord can hold any or all of the people on the lease accountable for any or all of the rent he's owed. Whether those people actually live there or not doesn't matter (although obviously, they have much more of an incentive to pay if they live there, because they could be evicted). The manner of paying rent does not change.

Or to clarify--if the rent total is $1000/mo, and you and your former roommate both signed the lease and split things 50/50, the two of you, combined, somehow need to cough up $1000 each month--you can't just pay your $500 share and then tell the landlord to go harass former roomie for the rest (well, you can, but then your landlord could start eviction proceedings, so I don't recommend it). The landlord can require you to pay the entire $1000 yourself if your roommate skips town and won't pay for his rent. Ethically, of course, your roommate should pay his part until the room is occupied.

As a landlord, I agree this is how the rental arrangement is generally set up. You are collectively and separately responsible for the rent of the unit and presumed to be acting as one. I don't think most of the local communities allow boarding houses -- the concept of renting a room as a individual and sharing the common areas -- so it's not usually possible for the arrangements to be for the individual room itself.

I'm not sure if I fully understand your response- you are agreeing that I need to either pay the entire amount or procure the rest from the lease breaker myself?
As a landlord, have you run into this situation in the past?

If he were to begin the eviction process, I would move and leave a mostly empty apartment. Besides a black mark on my name, I'd imagine he would sue all of us for the remaining rent to the term of the lease (May 31)? At least at that point we're All being held accountable instead of just me, though clearly I wouldn't want it to come to that.

What the others hve said is bsically right, except one thing I noticed....

I don't see how he can let your soon-to-be ex-roommate off the hook AND ask you for the remining rent. The lease goes both ways. Y'all can renegotiate the lease at any time, but not without your consent. Either the two of you owe all the rent, or you don't, because you've reached some other agreement.

The details matter, so I would talk to a lawyer.

Sorry I wasn't clear.

As the landlord, I don't care if you pay all the money yourself or if you get the former tenant to pay; all the tenants who signed the lease are responsible for the rent (it's a package deal).

I haven't had this issue myself, though the possibility one roommate of 3 leaving during the course of a lease was on the table. When that happened and I became aware of it, I let all the tenants know that they would be responsible for paying the entire rent as agreed or they could find a person acceptable to me as a substitute.

The best way to look at a lease is that it's a package deal -- technically the other roommates are on the hook for rent even if they left as long as they are included on the lease. If aliens came and whisked away your roommates, you owe the remainder of the rent (unless you included an alien abduction clause) because you are collectively (and severably) renting the unit.

The major flaw to your eviction scenario is that the court can hold you responsible for all the rent, especially if they can't track down the other tenants. Most landlords don't want to do this and will be open to negotiating a settlement if you surrender the unit.

So if I were to wait until he begins the eviction process, he can go after just me (since I'm the one being thrown out). However, if I were to also vacate on March 1st, he would have to go after all of us? Such a mess!

Also, can I actually ask for a new subletter to pay ME their portion of a last month without the landlord's consent? Ideally I would ask for them to make it out in the landlord's name and I would simply hold on to it until May.

oh, and btw I lived across from you in BS when the tree fell on the third floor... maaaan I certainly miss landlords who understand how to use email!!!

It's my understanding that the landlord can go after whoever they can find, who shows up, etc. So if your absent housemate is unfindable or decides to ignore the landlord, the landlord can legally go after any one (or any multiple) of the housemates on the lease for the full remaining amount. I think that's what others are referring to (the Joint and Several liability thingie). But I'm not a landlord, nor a tenant anymore, I'm just remembering what I had to look up when I was almost in the same circumstance many, many years ago.

That tree falling cost me more money than it should have, but I was glad to make the whole thing go away.

You probably can ask the subletter to pay the last month's rent to you since that's a matter for the roommates and the landlord's not involved.

One thing you will want to know is how the landlord handled the departing roommates' last month and security deposit. Did it stay with the "house account" or is the landlord refunding it or applying to the actual last month's rent the roomies were there? I usually make the tenants figure that out for themselves and let me know in writing how to handle it. It's possible that the departing roomies are forfeiting it, but you should be aware (don't want to overpay the landlord).

so as a final note, i ended up finding someone at the last minute willing to move in for a few months, and the landlord is now upset with me because neither of the people coming in are willing to sign for a year lease (vacated roomies found the other person). however, he did accept their paperwork and rent checks for March. i told him that if these people work out, i might stay until Sept too and then he can fill the whole place at once and he's not happy with that either. as of yet, they did not sign leases but merely filled out RHA applications. how can i find proper terms of agreement type paperwork on my own- I assume it doesn't have to be overly legal as long as something is in writing?

to backtrack, the landlord never has and does not plan to require either a security or last month's rent. so i told the person i found that i'd feel safe if he were to write out a check in the landlord's name and let me hold on to it just in case, but he wanted to give said check to the landlord, who refused it... and is now angry that i would ask for such a thing without letting him know.

at this point i guess it's a waiting game to see what he thinks about everything because he's not having anyone sign anything until June 1st...

Seconded: If you're on the lease, you're on the hook for the full amount.

Your landlord might be nice about it and not charge you the full rent until you get a new roommate, but he's not legally obligated to do so. I've known 1 case where the landlord was willing to treat 2 (responsible) people in a 3BR separately from the 3rd (perpetually late with his share of the rent), but that was out of the kindness of his heart.

This is why I often warn people to put their roommate rent situations in writing. You'll still be liable for the full amount if they skip out, but having it in writing makes sure everyone's on the same page.

I guess I assumed that with a lease, I shouldn't need to sign my own personal agreement. In the end, it wouldn't do much good anyway since I'd be in the same situation and the other party could still refuse to pay. So I am gathering that if he won't do it, then I have the right to go after them for the loss of rent...

The landlord also is not going to require any paperwork for the supposed sublet, which I can't wrap my mind around. I'm considering writing up my own document even though the lease says tenants can not sublet, but obviously that's what we'd be doing, even if it's only from March 1- May 31 that I'm legally responsible for... and I'd *hope* that nobody could bail out in that amount of time. Of course I can't ask someone to pay Me last month in advance just in case, right?

I'd *hope* that nobody could bail out in that amount of time

Well yeah you can hope, but I've had it happen. For such a short period of time I actually don't think it would be completely unreasonable to ask for all three months to be paid up-front.

The lease is really the group of tenants' agreement with the landlord. It's usually a good idea for the roommates themselves to put together an agreement of who pays what (how rent is divided, utilities, even groceries if need be), especially if you invite in strangers to live with you. It might not hold up in court, but at least you have something in writing. It would include notice periods and responsibility for finding a substitution and probably a reminder that leaving doesn't take them off the hook for rent.

I definitely wouldn't sublet with some kind of new agreement signed in writing. It's not just about the rent money. If the subleasers trash the place, you would be liable for the damage if your name is still on the lease.

Yeah, I think the crux of this issue is that it is not the landlord's decision to let the former tenant off of the hook with the rent. He's kind of overstepping if he says "oh, no, I don't want the money from him - I only want it from you." He should really just butt out of the picture and say "uhm, I don't care where I get the money from, as long as I get it by the end of the month."

The only issue would be if you moved in another roommate without permission. The landlord accepting money from someone not on the lease can sometimes create problems and, of course, I'm sure your lease limits who can live there anyway.

The terms of your lease could be different, but my understanding is that generally, if you signed a lease together with your roommates, each of you is responsible for the rent being paid in full if the others leave. It would be your job rather than the landlord's to collect from the departing roommates (small claims court could be an option.)

Call the massachusetts office of consumer affairs at 888-283-3757, explain the situation, and ask them what your liabilities and options are. Make sure to quote to them the relevant sections of the lease so they understand exactly what it says. They may need to call you back - they really will if they say so. They have lawyers on staff who they may need to consult for you.

I agree with the others. If you all signed one lease, then the landlord legally expects one payment, and doesn't give a hoot who actually coughed up the cash, or the percentages each person paid. If you each signed a separate lease for a separate percentage of the rent (like 1/3, 1/3, 1/3) and throughout the lease you've been giving the landlord 3 checks, then it's the landlord's responsibility to go after the one who isn't paying anymore.

Thus, if it's the first example, it's YOUR responsibility to get the person who left to pay for the remaining time on the lease. Good luck, you'll likely need it.

The doctrine everybody is alluding to is "joint and several liability."

Here's Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_and_several_liability); here's a random Massachusetts-specific explanation (http://www.malawforum.com/content/are-multiple-tenants-each-responsible-unpaid-rent).

What everyone else said about joint and several liability. However, there was one oddity in your original post I wanted to nitpick:

our lease does state that if a tenant should break the contract early, they must pay for the rest of the term until rent can be collected from someone else.

For the joint-and-several reasons mentioned, this is irrelevant. However, if all of you were to move out, this clause isn't quite valid. The landlord is entitled to rent from you after you move out until he re-rents the unit, which he must make a good-faith effort to do. He doesn't get to just sit on his butt and collect rent for an empty apartment until the lease ends (That's without even considering the effort it would take him to collect rent from people who are already gone, which is usually too much hassle to bother with at all). The fact that the lease says otherwise won't help.

way late question - but can you cite something saying the landlord needs to make a good faith effort to re-rent in the case of breaking a lease?

I'm not doubting you, I'm just looking for some statute or case law on it for a friend who is moving - and I'm over 5000 miles away from MA.

My main source for this is the quasi-canonical How to be a tenant in Massachusetts and avoid getting ripped off, in the section "Breaking Leases". That's not actual law; a more official reference comes from the state's Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation (deep linking doesn't seem to work; go to mass.gov and follow the links for "State Government", "Alphabetic list", "Consumer affairs and business regulation", "For businesses", "Landlords, Real Estate", "Landlord Rights & Responsibilities") and read under "A tenant under lease".

Any ideas how that would work if the unit is an owner occupied condo, and tenant a roommate?

Does the landlord, who also lives in the dwelling, still have a duty to mitigate damages - are they required to make a reasonable effort to find, essentially a new roommate, instead of just socking it to the tenant who is leaving, for the remainder of the lease?

I don't know. That sounds tricky. This is the point at which I'd call (or advise your friend to call) a lawyer in MA who does landlord-tenant stuff and get a consultation. The concept of the duty to mitigate damages isn't specific to landlord-tenant law, so I suspect it would still apply, but there's a lot of room for details to make a difference.

It sounds like your landlord's "good will" is a little flawed here. "Good will" suggests that he is making some kind of sacrifice in order to make your lives easier, but it doesn't sound like that's what's happening here.

In fact unless he allows you to all leave together or is willing cut your rent down to only your share, he's not really "giving" you anything that you couldn't otherwise achieve on your own by just having your roommate move out and picking up their share of the rent. But he is putting you completely on the hook for collecting the money, rather than sharing the responsibility as would be the courteous (though not legally required) thing to do in cases like this.

To put it succinctly, your roommates are screwing you and your landlord is not giving you or your roommates any special privileges (or penalties) that you or your roommates wouldn't have otherwise had.

Yeah, I tend to agree that your (former) roommates are screwing you, assuming you are on a fairly standard lease. Its really between you and them to figure out how to pay the rent and if they are leaving without paying they're basically saying you have to pay it. They should be willing to cover the cost of the rooms until they are subletted.

If the landlord is enforcing the lease selectively (holding some lessees responsible and others not responsible), that may be a problem with which you can get help.

If he's not going to hold the people who are moving out responsible for their obligations under the lease, he needs to renegotiate and rewrite the lease, not just cross them off and leave you guys holding the bag.

So it sounds like your soon-to-be ex-roommates are screwing you and he's helping them to do that. Which sucks.

I mean, you guys could just pay your share and then let him take all of you (including the ex-roommates) to court and see what happens. Or you could get the ex-roommates to act like adults. Or you could see if he's open to negotiation while you guys try to find new roommates.

Look back in this tag - I don;t have time right now but a couple years ago I posted a HUGE aggregated legal guide for tenants post with links to the laws, rights orgs, etc.

In my personal opinion, the burden should fall equally on everyone named on the lease, including the departing roommates. That means that the people leaving are responsible for their share of the lease, or for finding new people to take over their share, until new tenants are found.

In practice, that's going to be hard to enforce, though.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What my tenant rights be?

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Don't ask us, ask the relevant state office, they can help you better.

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