Thousands of dollars in debt, because old roommate won't pay rent! PLEASE HELP!

[Dianamarie1013]

old roommate won't pay rent! PLEASE HELP!

Hi, I'm getting evicted from my apartment because of late rent payment. I usually pay 879$ but because of the court costs for eviction I owe 1200$. I have a roommate, who is NOT on the lease, but still agreed to pay 300$ a month. A couple of days before the first of November (when rent was due) I asked him if he had his rent, so I could pay mine. He told me he didn't, even though he got paid that day, and made all kind of excuses about how it was gone, and told me he would pay it to me in two weeks on his next payday, which made it late then. This is when I got my eviction notice if I can't come up with the late rent payment. Two weeks later, the day he was paid, I asked him for my money, and he continued to tell me he would give it to my on the 26th, which was another week later, when our court date was the 27th. So he has refused to give me any money, I then told him to move his stuff out, and if he wasn't going to pay me that I would take him to small claims court.

Everyone tells me that I don't have a case cause he isn't on the lease, but my father told me that an oral agreement is just as convicting as a written agreement, just a lack of hard strong proof, but I have plenty of witnesses, even the manager of the apartment. He's cost me several hundred dollars, cause I am now evicted and I have to pay 879$ for each month the apartment is not rented out. Do you think I have a good case? Do you think I can get at least what I'm asking for, or hopefully more? (asking for 450, 300 rent, and 150$ extra, half the courst costs, since it was his fault we were late)

Oh, plus I have gotten pissed off plenty of times, cause he always has parties in my house, and I've found weed numerous times there. Oh and I live in MN if that helps

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Hi, I'm getting evicted from my apartment because of late rent payment. I usually pay 879$ but because of the court costs for eviction I owe 1200$. I have a roommate, who is NOT on the lease, but still agreed to pay 300$ a month. A couple of days before the first of November (when rent was due) I asked him if he had his rent, so I could pay mine. He told me he didn't, even though he got paid that day, and made all kind of excuses about how it was gone, and told me he would pay it to me in two weeks on his next payday, which made it late then. This is when I got my eviction notice if I can't come up with the late rent payment. Two weeks later, the day he was paid, I asked him for my money, and he continued to tell me he would give it to my on the 26th, which was another week later, when our court date was the 27th. So he has refused to give me any money, I then told him to move his stuff out, and if he wasn't going to pay me that I would take him to small claims court.

Everyone tells me that I don't have a case cause he isn't on the lease, but my father told me that an oral agreement is just as convicting as a written agreement, just a lack of hard strong proof, but I have plenty of witnesses, even the manager of the apartment. He's cost me several hundred dollars, cause I am now evicted and I have to pay 879$ for each month the apartment is not rented out. Do you think I have a good case? Do you think I can get at least what I'm asking for, or hopefully more? (asking for 450, 300 rent, and 150$ extra, half the courst costs, since it was his fault we were late)

Oh, plus I have gotten pissed off plenty of times, cause he always has parties in my house, and I've found weed numerous times there. Oh and I live in MN if that helps

I'm not sure why people told you that you didn't have a case. Of course you do and it is under numerous legal theories. One of the most obvious concepts in law is "unjust enrichment" which means exactly what it means. It's common sense. If someone lived under your roof and agreed as part of those conditions to pay rent, then they shouldn't be able to just walk away from that. It would be absurd. The law wants to enforce this "oral agreement" -- which is what you have here.

In this instance you should be able to get at least $300 and it is debatable about the rest. This is because you are responsible for the entire amount on your lease, regardless of whether he was your roomate. Why were you late on the rent? I would still sue for the eviction expenses which were as a result of his nonpayment although state law may have something to say on this topic (some require that in order to recover for legal expenses there must be a written lease, although this may or may not be applicable in your case.) Good luck to you and I'm sorry to hear about your problem. ALWAYS have a written lease in the future -- it makes so much that much easier...

 

[Dianamarie1013]

Thank you

Thank you.

And to answer your question it was because of a couple of reasons. When I signed the lease I worked at a better paying job, but changed jobs, my newer job paid less then I figured, because of Comission, leaving me in no way to cover his share. And I met my roommate through my old job, so I knew how much he was getting paid, and when he would get paid, so he would get paid about 4oo-500$ every two weeks, and then telling me he wasn't able to pay any.

I kept telling him to sign the lease, and he kept telling me he would, but it never seemed to happen. And you're right it was silly of me not to have something written, I just never figured a friend of mine would do something like this to me, especially when I was helping him out, I had other people willing to pay 450$ for that room, and he paid 300$, I did it for him because he lived in Wisconsin, but worked in Minnesota, and had to make a 50 mile commute. Shame on me for being foolish.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Hey... it happens. Fortunately your lesson cost you so much less than most. We've all been there!