tenant/tenant dispute

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atcheekay

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My roommate and I are on month to month. I want to leave at the end of May when we graduate. She wants to stay until August. She wants me to keep paying rent until then - obviously we are not currently getting along. The landlord has said that I need to get her signature on my notice to vacate or he will keep me on the lease. Roommate refuses to sign. Nothing in my lease said anything about having my roommate's approval before I leave. What to do please?
 
atcheekay said:
My roommate and I are on month to month. I want to leave at the end of May when we graduate. She wants to stay until August. She wants me to keep paying rent until then - obviously we are not currently getting along. The landlord has said that I need to get her signature on my notice to vacate or he will keep me on the lease. Roommate refuses to sign. Nothing in my lease said anything about having my roommate's approval before I leave. What to do please?

That's a real good question.

If you alone are on a separate month to month lease with the landlord, you don't need your roomate's signature. All you would need to do is send a notice to terminate your lease. However, what else is written into this lease? Is this a jointly signed lease? I'm guessing that therein is where the problem lies.

If you have jointly signed month to month lease, it gets more complicated. Take a good look at your lease with regard to termination and renewal. What are the procedures and requirements? Can either of you terminate the lease? Can either of you renew the lease? If it is blank to this issue, the landlord may have a problem dealing with the ambiguity of the lease. What may be more effective would be to provide notice to your roommate that you intend to terminate the lease at the end of May and that if she wishes to continue to stay then she will be responsible for the entire amount of the rent. You should also provide a termination notice to your landlord, regardless of whether it is ultimately effective. This may be enough to scare your roommate into thinking that she will want to take the risk of staying for the next two months at full rental which she will then have to collect from you. If the lease is adjudicated to be effective, the landlord can (and will likely) sue you and your roomate for your portion of the rent. Most people don't want to have to deal with the potential mess and will make prior arrangements to move and we never get into the legal issue.

Good luck to you and congratulations on finishing college!!! :D
 
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