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  1. #1
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Fairfax, VA
    Posts
    2

    Default Roommate Moving Out Early - Questions About Agreement

    Hello all...

    I live in Virginia, and I currently reside with two other roommates. One of them is moving out around June 18 to a condo she purchased in Washington DC. Our lease which was signed on November 1, 2004 does not terminate until October 31, 2005. Our rent for our apartment is $1255 a month, which amounts to $418.34 (estimate) each per month.

    We have a subtenant moving in on June 18 to take over her portion of the lease from June 18 through August 21. The subtenant is paying $650 a month including utilities for her time in our apartment, for a total of $1400 for the duration of her sublease. The subtenant will pay all the rent in advance upon her arrival to me by check.
    We are not going through the apartment management company and "officially" subleasing per se, as the fees to change names on our leases at our apartment complex are outrageously high ($150 for a name change on a lease - is that legal...they claim it is administrative costs). You can lecture me if you want about the legality of subleasing without landlord approval, but the subtenant is a student on summer internship with no belongings and no vehicle, and she will only be living with us for two months.

    The departing tenant will pay her June rent in full ($418.34) to the apartment leasing office on June 1, and she will also pay $37.50 in utility charges (we have phone, cable TV and cooling/electric that we divide by 3)before she vacates the premises. The rent is due on June 1 to the leasing office, and the departing tenant is aware and has agreed to pay her June rent in full. We are currently trying to get another subtenant for August 21 - October 28, and if we get another subtenant, we will refund a portion of the June rent to the departing tenant depending on when she completely vacates the premises. If we do not get another tenant, the departing tenant will not receive any refund for June rent and will be responsible for September and October rent as well.

    However, the departing tenant has made some strange requests prior to her departure of the residence.

    First, she wishes for me to give her the money paid to me by the subtenant so she can pay rent for July, August and September. After removing $160 from the original $1400 paid by the subtenant for utility costs for the duration of her sublease, I would pay $1240 to the departing tenant so she can write her own lease checks out to the apartment leasing office for July, August, September and October rent. This is fine, and I have agreed to do so. I just feel as though it is a trust issue with me paying the rent for her, and she just wants to cover her butt as it is her name that is on the lease. She has always been prompt in rent payments and I have no doubt she will fulfill this portion of the original lease agreement.

    Second, the departing tenant wishes to keep her keys to the apartment and the building. Since her name is still on the lease, I do realize that she has the right and can keep her keys, but we need copies of the keys for the incoming subtenant. Also, the main key to our building says "do not duplicate" so will she have to surrender this key to us upon her departure since it cannot be copied? We need to be able to give a key to the building to the incoming subtenant. Another thing is security. Though her name is on the lease, we do not want the departing tenant coming and going freely into the apartment after she has moved out. Can we suggest that she informs the current tenants when she will be stopping by the apartment for any reason, or is this not legal? Is it true that as long as she is on the lease, she is allowed free reign and access to the apartment providing that she has her keys and pays rent? We just want to ask this for our own safety and security, and knowing who is coming in and going out of the apartment is a concern of ours.

    Third, the departing tenant is scheduled to be out of the apartment by June 18. Can we legally charge her for storing items in the apartment beyond her departure date (i.e., not refund the part of her rent from June should we get another subtenant or charge her a holding fee for storage on top of the monthly rent if we do not get a subtenant)? She is still technically on the lease, does she have a right to store items there even though it isn't her primary residence?

    Fourth, the departing tenant wishes to keep her garage access card and parking sticker even though she will not be living there. The current tenants will have a right to park in this space but can only access it with the garage access card. Should the departing tenant have to surrender her garage access card upon her vacating the apartment, since she will not be using the space on a daily basis after she moves out? I feel that she should have to give the access card to the current tenants so they can use the space since they will be the primary residents of the dwelling. However, the departing tenant will still be on the lease...so she probably has the right to keep the access card, right? Please advise.

    Lastly, as the departing tenant is still on the lease, she is liable to assist the current residents with clean up and maintenance of the apartment prior to the lease termination on October 31, 2005. The departing tenant paid $75 in a security deposit when the lease was signed, so if she wishes to have any part of that deposit, she should help in the final inspection and cleaning of the unit...am I correct? Also, before the current tenants depart the apartment and turn in the keys to the leasing office, is it required that the departing tenant have to be present and turn in her keys and sign off on any other items that need to be turned in (parking pass, garage access card, laundry card, pool pass, etc)? She is still on the lease, so I am almost certain that she has to be present when the lease terminates and all apartment property is turned over to the leasing office.

    If you could help me out, it would be much appreciated. I have drafted a lease document for the departing tenant to sign and I can e-mail it to you if you wish to review it for me and give me your feedback.

    Please contact me at polishprincess@gmail.com if you can help me!

    Thanks!

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    28,906

    Default Re: Roommate moving out early - Questions about agreement

    Quote Quoting Pinskies
    First, she wishes for me to give her the money paid to me by the subtenant so she can pay rent for July, August and September. After removing $160 from the original $1400 paid by the subtenant for utility costs for the duration of her sublease, I would pay $1240 to the departing tenant so she can write her own lease checks out to the apartment leasing office for July, August, September and October rent. This is fine, and I have agreed to do so.
    If you do that and get burned, consider yourself to have been warned.

    Quote Quoting Pinskies
    Second, the departing tenant wishes to keep her keys to the apartment and the building. Since her name is still on the lease, I do realize that she has the right and can keep her keys, but we need copies of the keys for the incoming subtenant.
    If she is moving out, she doesn't need keys. If you are trusting her with the money from the subtenant, she has no risk.

    Quote Quoting Pinskies
    Third, the departing tenant is scheduled to be out of the apartment by June 18. Can we legally charge her for storing items in the apartment beyond her departure date (i.e., not refund the part of her rent from June should we get another subtenant or charge her a holding fee for storage on top of the monthly rent if we do not get a subtenant)?
    Seriously - you know what you need to do? Pay the $150 to have the new roommate named on the lease and get this person out of your lives.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Fairfax, VA
    Posts
    2

    Default Re: Roommate moving out early - Questions about agreement

    Thanks Aaron!

    The roommate that is leaving will still be on the lease. In regards to giving her the $1240 for rent that was paid by the subtenant, I know she will use this for her rent for July, August and a portion of September. Her name is still going to remain on the original lease document and she will be paying the rent on her own each month on the 1st of the month. I offered to pay it for her so she wouldn't have to drive up here every month from DC to pay it, but she said she was liable and wanted the money to come from her account on her checks.

    I agree with you on the part about the keys and parking though. It's a little wierd and unsafe in my opinion.

    I would just pay the $150 and have the subletter added to the lease, but then we still have someone who owes for part of September rent and all of October rent. If we remove the departing roommate from the lease, she will no longer be technically liable for that rent for September and October (since her name has been removed from the lease) and won't pay, and I don't want myself and my other roommate to get screwed over. Basically we are subletting as a convenience to her, and we could have just made her pay everything. She should get no concessions.

    Thoughts?

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    28,906

    Default Removing roommate from lease.

    Remove her as of the end of October.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    May 2005
    Location
    Dulles, Virginia
    Posts
    1

    Default Starting off on the wrong foot

    I am a Virginia attorney. I don't know what went wrong with your post on
    LawGuru, but I think someone accidentally screwed up your question
    there, and now I cannot answer your question there. It won't let me.

    The problem with both your questions and your roomate's views are that you are all making a fundamental legal mistake. Your roommate IS on the lease until it ends in October. The departing roommate has NO rights to get off of the lease, unless the landlord signs a new lease or a waiver or release or a substitution of a new tenant.

    Your rooomate decided to buy a house. Too bad. Tough luck. Her obligations under the lease DO NOT END until the lease terminates at the end of October.

    Therefore, your departing roommate has ZERO rights except to remain as a tenant on the lease the same as before.

    As it stands right now, legally, your departing roommate is obligated TO CONTINUE PAYING THE RENT every month until October.

    So she is asking you for a FAVOR... to be released from her obligations under the lease, by you informally substituting a new roommate -- and in a way that RISKS all of you being evicted because it is not really allowed. I think the chances of that are very, very small, and I would not worry, but I'm just saying that your departing roommate is asking a LOT of you.

    Instead, your departing roommate seems to be dictating terms to you, while breaching the lease. This makes no sense.

    In order to get your cooperation in allowing the departing roommate to leave, they need to satisfy you as to when and how you are willing to do that.

    Therefore, the entire question is based on a wrong idea. Legally, NOTHING CHANGES with your departing roommate, including the obligation to continue paying the full amount of the rent every month. The fact that she wanted to buy a house is irrelevant. She should have thought of that before buying the house.

    Therefore, the question is, in order to induce you to relieve her of this financial obligation, what is she willing to GIVE UP to persuade you to give her this incredible benefit of getting out of the lease early (informally) so that she can buy a house. The correct question is what does she have to do to satisify YOU in order for you to give a very significant favor to her. The question is not what "rights" the departing roommate has (none), but what benefits she is willing to offer you for the privilege of getting out of the lease early.

    THe question needs to be what she is willing to offer YOU to secure your cooperation, not what rights she has to retain. Her only legal rights is to stay put and continue paying the full amount of her rent every month, without any change whatsoever.

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