Harassment by Co-Lessee

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marypaupin

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Last month, my roommate (who is co-signed on our lease, which ends in August) told me that she was moving out at the end of the month and that she would not pay rent afterwards. I looked for a roommate to replace her, but could not find one (it was the holiday season afterall). I finally told her that in order to protect myself from being legally responsible for paying full rent for the month of January, I would not release her from the release until I found a new roommate.

After I told her this, she decided to stay and began harassing me by threatening to call the police if I had guests after 10PM, threatening to hire a cleaning crew to remove "refuse", ie my belongings, from the apartment, and threatening to call the humane society to report my cat as abandoned if I left him alone in the apartment.

I understand that since I'm a legal resident, I can have any guests over at any time, but my cat is now staying with my parents and I am afraid of what she may do to my belongings. I own everything in the living room. We have locks on each of our bedroom doors.

Now she is paying rent, but she has made me very uncomfortable in my own home. She says that she will not release me from the lease regardless of whether or not I find a suitable replacement roommate. I've spoken with the property manager -- specifically, I offered to move into an efficiency if I was allowed to break the current lease -- but the property manager took a unilateral hands-off approach.

What can I do? What are my rights?

Thanks for any help!
 
You might want to tell your roomate that the decision to let you out of the lease isn't yours and your landlord will likely not allow it since if you break it, he has the protection of suing your roomate for the entire rental amount. Both of you, unless stated otherwise, would probably be responsible for the entire amount. The landlord would likely demand a higher rent in return for releasing your roomate -- it isn't you who needs to make the decision but your landlord. The lease is between the two of you and the landlord on the other side.

You have rights as a tenant and the situation has become impossible. Perhaps telling her the above might help with the situation. In fact, if she makes it impossible to live in the apartment, it is possible that if you are "constructively evicted" from your apartment, you might be able to abate or reduce the amount of rent due. While the full amount is due the landlord, you might be able to sue your roomate for the amount that your rent should be reduced by due to her nuisance.

I don't blame your landlord for taking a hands off approach.
 
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