Primay and secondary leases?

[bhoconnor]

Hi,

I am a graduate student on a tight budget, so I don't have the ability to pay for a lawyer to advise on a lease question that just came up—any help would be hugely appreciated!

I'm renting a house and am wondering if you all have any sense whether it's a common or advisable practice for a landlord to have a lease with one primary person in a house, who then has multiple secondary leases with others in the house. That is the situation I lived in this year (as one of the secondary leasees, not the primary), and I'm trying to decide about staying in my house and taking on that primary role (where I'd basically be signing that I'm liable for the full $1200 house rent, which I'd then get in part from two others who would move into the house with me).

I just hate moving and love my place, so I'm inclined to stay, but was going to see if there was any basic legal advice that I could share with my landlord that may convince her that it's a better legal/business decision for her to have everyone on the lease, opposed to having a lease with me who then has to have two leases with others.

Many, many thanks.

 

[army judge]

You're taking a huge risk for a minimal reward.

That is usually born by the landlord.

If one of your sublets bails on you, you're stuck paying his/her share.

The landlord only needs to come after you.

I wouldn't do it.

These agreements are fraught with high risks, minimal rewards.

Let the landlord hold all the risk.

My advice is, if you can't afford to pay $1,200/month by yourself, rent elsewhere.

You don't want the headaches this will possibly engender!

 

[bhoconnor]

Thanks so much for the quick reply...i am definitely torn. Do you think there are any good arguments i can make to the landlord about why it would be better for her to put all of us on the lease? That's something i thought i would try....

If it doesn't work, i was going to ask for credit checks, as well as require the following in the lease if tenants break the lease before 12 months:

o forfeit of security deposit;
o 45-day notice; and
o finding someone to fill the room;
OR
o paying entire remainder of 12-month lease in rent (depending on how long it takes me to find someone to replace them); and
o forfeit of security deposit.

I don't mean to use your willingness to help me out by throwing all this at you, but thought from your response that you might be willing to give a little more advice. It's much appreciated either way!

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

As Army Judge has pointed out, you assume a great deal of risk doing this. You can ask the landlord to put everyone on the lease but there's little financial incentive for them to agree to this. The way things are set up now, you are doing their work and reaping little or no financial rewards for doing so.

In addition, most leases have a stipulation that makes all tenants "jointly and severally" responsible for the rent; in other words, if one bails, the others remain responsible for the entire rent and it's up to them to hunt the bailed roommate down and, if needed, sue them for what they owe. This is one reason why roommate situations often do not work out.

Your suggestion to require credit checks and forfeiture of the security deposit/making them responsible for finding someone to fill the room/providing adequate WRITTEN notice are all good ones. They would also be financially responsible for the months the rental room sits empty (at least until the lease expires).

However, keep in mind that having these stipulations in the lease doesn't mean roommates will follow them. When roommates want to bail, they often come up with inventive reasons for leaving (i.e., they were living in a situation that "tortured" them and they "had" to escape for the mental health is a common theme) to justify taking off. One often has to resort to hunting them down and filing a lawsuit against them for owed rent/fees and even winning one is no guarantee you'll ever see a penny of what you are owed.

Gail

 

[army judge]

There is no way to protect yourself.

There are ways to trick yourself into doing this.

The best thing is to avoid having roommates.

Husbands & wives divorce at a 50% (armors) rate.

Roommates break up at the same rate.

The risk is too great, the reward is too small for my liking.

If you can not afford to rent the unit on your own, just don't do it.

Gail gave you good advice.

In the end, there is no real way to avoid disaster.

One thing is eternally known, in our lives, others will always disappoint us!!!

Thanks so much for the quick reply...i am definitely torn. Do you think there are any good arguments i can make to the landlord about why it would be better for her to put all of us on the lease? That's something i thought i would try....

If it doesn't work, i was going to ask for credit checks, as well as require the following in the lease if tenants break the lease before 12 months:

o forfeit of security deposit;
o 45-day notice; and
o finding someone to fill the room;
OR
o paying entire remainder of 12-month lease in rent (depending on how long it takes me to find someone to replace them); and
o forfeit of security deposit.

I don't mean to use your willingness to help me out by throwing all this at you, but thought from your response that you might be willing to give a little more advice. It's much appreciated either way!

 

[bhoconnor]

Hi Gail, army judge,

Tons of thanks to both of you, as it really is helpful to have some outside perspective....i think i will try to get in touch with the landlord and bring this up as a possibility. She will definitely be a hard sell with it though....

I hear you Gail as well, in terms of it being difficult to actually get your money back if someone does bail out. It's also super-helpful to hear that some of those guidelines seem fair that i mentioned, even if it could be tough to enforce if people just decided to ignore them...i figure if i put them in the lease it may bring a sense of legality/authority to it. I'm also planning on being really selective with who i let in, generally opting for those in grad school, since school's have already done some weeding out in ways (though clearly there are plenty who aren't in grad school that could be fine, it just could help do some scrutinizing for me).

I also appreciate your points army judge w/the divorce rate comparison, i hadn't thought about that...i think i may end up taking the risk in the end, but hopefully in a way that mitigates the risk on various levels...

And i guess in general, i really do like the idea of a shared house, it's a great place, the landlord is fairly understanding (even if not necessarily in terms of putting us all on the lease). There are just some things about living with others that, if it can work out, can make it a great situation...i'll have to try to update this if anything happens (or doesn't happen) in the next year...

As one last question, do you all think it would be fair to say to the landlord that there could be some financial incentive for putting us all on the lease, since it would be almost impossible for me to cover the whole rent if one or both folks bailed? I'm pretty sure she would like to see my stay, and so i really don't think that would convince her otherwise, but just trying to think about it....

Thanks again!