subleaser leaving and not paying the rent

[ginras]

Jurisdiction

Massachusetts

Hi,
we have a situation. we subleased an apt to a person, he moved in in January and paid the January rent. He decided that the room was not big enough for him and moved out Feb 15th 2017. He did not give enough notice to find another subleaser and he had agreed to lease the room from Jan to August 2017. we did not have a lease agreement, with had a verbal and txts. Can the txt prove we had an agreement? the subleaser decided not to pay the rent for Feb or March, to allow us time to find another person to fill the spot. He is stating we cannot force him to pay anything because he didn't sign anything, but we have the agreement in a txt form from him. The person that subleased the room was living in Greece prior to moving in. Please let us know if we can persue taking him to small claims court for the 2 months of rent?

 

[adjusterjack]

You don't get to sue him for anything until you have replaced him and then you can sue for unpaid rent from the time he defaulted until the time you replaced him provided you made reasonable efforts to replace him as soon as reasonably possible and on the same terms and conditions. That's called "mitigation of damages" and is required by MA case law.

Other than that, you don't necessarily have to sign a contract to have a contract and whether a court would accept texts as evidence is anybody's guess.

At the very least he owes you for February, the month he moved out without notice because 30 days notice for a tenancy at will is covered by MA statute:

Section 12

You may have shot yourself in the foot by not getting a written lease.