MAKING THE RENT PAYMENTS WITH YOUR ROOMMATES
Once you have decided to move into an apartment with one or more
roommates, you will need to determine how your rental payments
will be handled. There are three ways you can set up the lease
and determine how the rent will be paid:
a) All roommates sign the lease, and all are then "Jointly and
Severally Liable" for rent and damages
b) One person basically becomes the "landlord" of the apartment
by renting one or several rooms of the apartment to other people
through what is called "subletting."
c) You and your roommates create your own contract.
Subletting is complicated, but it is a great way to have legal
backup in the event that you have irresponsible roommates. For
example, Joe, Frank and Bill move in together, and they all sign
a basic lease (making each party "Jointly and Severally Liable."
Joe and Frank are responsible roommates, and have their payments
ready on the first of the month, but Bill is broke. Frank and
Joe, then, must come up with Bill's rent money since they are
all on the same lease together. If they only submit their
portion of the rent, the landlord can legally evict all three
tenants - even though Bill is the only tenant at fault.
However, if Joe, Frank and Bill had been subletting the
apartment - Joe is the sublessor, Frank and Bill are the
sublessees, Bill could have been held legally responsible. In
this situation, Joe would basically be the landlord of their
apartment. He would be responsible for all landlord duties - one
of which is collecting rent from his sublessees (Frank and Bill)
and turning it in to the landlord of the complex. If, as a
sublessee, Bill failed to pay his rent, Joe could evict him from
the apartment, or take the rent out of his security deposit, and
Joe and Frank would be free to stay in the apartment without
being punished for Bill's unpaid rent.
Some complexes do not allow subletting. If this is the case in
your complex, it is be wise to protect yourself and your
roommates by designing a written contract that spells out your
obligations to each other, such as what portion of rent each
will pay, responsibility for damages, division of payment for
utilities, duration of the rental period, responsibility for
finding a replacement upon early termination, and payment of
rent until a replacement is found.- which may be better in the
long run because in subletting, one person must take on more
responsibility as landlord and this could cause battles for
power in the household.
Joe, Frank and Bill could set up a contract stating exactly how
much rent each party is responsible for:
I, Joe Blow will pay $250.00 rent money on the fifteenth day of
each month by five o'clock PM.
I, Frank Dunn will pay $250.00 rent money on the fifteenth day
of each month by five o'clock PM.
I, Bill Schnill will pay $250.00 rent money on the fifteenth day
of each month by five o'clock PM.
Signed:
Joe Blow
Frank Dunn
Bill Schnill
They could then get this document notarized for legal
verification. In the event that one of the parties did not pay
the $250.00 on the fifteenth day of a certain month by five pm,
the other two parties could take legal action against him and
avoid a bad mark on their rental history record. Notarization
usually costs under ten dollars, and Notaries are easy to find.
This simple contract could save you and your responsible
roommates from any legal problems in the future.
So, in order to avoid any future disasters with irresponsible
roommates, you need to decide how things are going to be handled
once you all move in together. Just make sure that all
agreements are written and legally verified. Oral contracts
don