Ex-Roommate and Rent Compensation

**Roommate51** · 11-03-2008, 07:25 PM

My question involves a roommate in the State of: New Jersey

My roommate is intending to break the lease and leave.

By our mutual agreement, he pays $1100 monthly and I pay $800.

Here are my questions:

1) When he leaves, would a court of law hold him responsible for $1100 or for what is actually one-half of the rent, which is $950?

2) Based on the kinds of responses I'm getting to my roommate ad, I don't think I can rent his room for even one-half the rent. I'm only getting responses at $800 monthly or less. So, if I rent the room for $800, would my ex-roommate who broke the lease still be responsible for the difference? And, would that difference be between what it's rented for and $1100 or what it's rented for and $950 (which is one-half of the full rent on this place)?

Thanks for your help.

**Mr. Knowitall** · 11-05-2008, 08:59 PM

The court will doe what it does. If you have an agreement that he pays more than 50%, and you can prove that to the court (the history of past payments is evidence of an agreement), a court should divide the rent according to your agreement. Of course, the facts and circumstances of any such agreement could affect that, and we don't know the details.

You can try to convince the court that you could not find a roommate who would pay the same amount of rent. If the court accepts that, the court can order him to pay the difference between the amount of rent the new roommate pays and the amount the court finds him obligated to pay under your agreement.