Your Roommate Moved Out: Are You Now Liable for All the Rent?

The first thing the tenant will need to do is carefully read the terms of the lease. Usually, each adult who shares a housing unit is required to sign the rental agreement, which means that both the remaining tenant and the roommate who moved out have entered into a lease with the landlord.

Typically, residential leases state the following:

• Tenant names and who can live in the unit
• Whether tenants are allowed to sublet and the terms of subleases (e.g., with landlord’s permission)
• Length of lease term (annual, month-to-month, etc.)
• Rent amount
• When rent payments are due and when late fees are assessed
• Types and amount of deposits and fees
• Pet policy
• Tenancy restrictions, such as prohibition of illegal activities, etc.
• Who is responsible for repairs
• Who provides maintenance and how often
• Who pays for heat
• Other tenant or landlord obligations

The terms of the lease will usually state that each person who signs the lease is “joint and severally liable” for each of the obligations under the agreement.

In the context of landlord tenant law, joint and several liability means that if one tenant does something in violation of the lease, the co-tenants are equally responsible to the landlord.

So if one tenant doesn’t pay their fair share of the rent, the co-tenant is responsible to the landlord for the entire rent. In fact, the roommate who remains in the apartment can be evicted and sued for unpaid rent if the roommate who left does not pay their share and the remaining tenant does not make up the difference.

The roommate who remains in the apartment can always sue the co-tenant for the unpaid rent.

The roommate who stayed will have to prove how much the roommate who left owes him or her in unpaid rent. If the co-tenants had entered into a separate roommate agreement – something that a Boston tenant lawyer would recommend –these terms would have been spelled out in the agreement and would serve as proof of amounts owed. If there is no separate roommate agreement, the remaining tenant can offer proof of what is owed by submitting previous rental payments in the form of bank statements or canceled checks.

The landlord, of course, has some options on how to proceed. He or she can try to collect the unpaid rents from all co-tenants or can choose to just file suit against the non-paying co-tenant.

How the landlord decides proceed will depend on a number of factors, including:

• Can the non-paying roommate be readily replaced?
• Is the roommate who remained a desirable tenant the landlord would like to keep?
• Is the landlord likely to be successful in collecting money from either roommate?

A Boston tenant lawyer is in the best position to offer advice about how to proceed in instituting a collection action against your former roommate or any other options available to you.