I rent a home in Ferndale, MI with two other girls. We signed a 1 year lease in September and things have gone moderately smoothly up until now.
My roommates and I made a verbal agreement to all pay 1/3 of the utilities. We agreed on a cable/internet package that we all wanted and each have a utility in our names. This worked well for the first month. The roommate we're having problems with has not paid for gas since the first month. Our gas bill is around $270/month and the other two others (electric and cable) are about $100 a month. Our roommate will not pay for gas and it has put her share of it on my roommate and I.
In addition, she has been late for the past three months on her rent. The landlord called me today and understands the situation. He would like her out of the house just as much as we would because she has threatened to put her rent money into escroe because of a few outlets in our home that don't work. He told he that he will be serving us with a 7 day eviction notice and if she pays on time, he will still be charging us the additional $25/month for rent.
The landlord said that he would like to keep my good roommate and I as tenants and would like to evict her. He's offered to let us out of the lease and let my good roommate and I rent a 2 bedroom flat he's got available. The roommate who is paying her rent late refuses to leave.
I do not want to be evicted for not paying rent, but I cannot afford to pay her share. We are all on the lease and each pay our $333.33 separately. I'd like to know what my options are as far as getting her out of the house. Should I pay her share of the rent and try to evict her? Is it legal to evict your own roommate for not paying her rent and utilities? Should I let the landlord evict us and rerent the other flat from him?
We'd like to get her out ASAP because of the money she is costing us each month. Please help! Thank you!

