Roomate Drug/alcohol use

[williams131]

I moved into an apartment with 2 other people about a month ago. Since then they, and their friends have started to use alcohol, and drugs within the house. They are both underage. I want to move out because I dont want risk of there being drug charges on my record, when i have never used either substance. How should i go about this?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

The first question is whether you have a lease and second would be whether, if you do, all of you have cosigned it.

 

[williams131]

Yes there is a lease, and yes we all co-signed it.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

This is not easy. You could be on the hook for rent for the rest of the lease with your option of recovering it from the other two roomates. You may want to send them written notice, certified return receipt, warning them of the problem and that it must immediately cease as they have breached the lease and placed you in an unsafe environment. They must cease their conduct immediatley upon receipt of the letter. If they don't clean up their act within a few days, you may want to talk to the landlord about the condition. Be careful since, as I said before, you could be on the hook for the entire amount of the lease. Your roomates could be evicted. However, at some point you may want to give notice (and it should be in writing and certified return receipt mail) that you will be moving out of the apartment if the condition is not remedied within a certain number of days (I would say 3-5 days should suffice) due to the unsafe condition within your apartment.

If the landlord is reasonable and lets you out... get it in writing. This is a very, very difficult situation. The moral is to always get a written agreement with your roomates and be very careful with cosigning anything. If you do, you may want extra protection if the cosignees are not trustworthy.

 

[williams131]

What about finding somebody to take over my part of the lease?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

You will likely need the permission of the landlord to permit someone else to assume your portion of the lease. If so, you will want to make sure that you are released from the lease and not remain liable as a guarantor on the lease.

 

[williams131]

I thank you very much for your help in making this difficult decision