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  1. #1
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    Jan 2017
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    Default Can a Landlord Create a Separate Addendum for Each Tenant

    My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Colorado

    I own an investment property in Denver, CO that is currently occupied by 3 tenants who have all had some sort of falling out and as such want to terminate their lease early. The last thing I want is a houseful of people at each other's throats, so I have agreed to work with each tenant individually with respect to when that specific tenant will vacate and how much in prorated rent and fees they will be responsible for. Once everything is figured out, I will have to create an addendum to their current lease to spell it all out. Since none of them are on speaking terms and all of the agreements we could potentially arrive at could have drastically different terms, it feels like the right way to go about this is to create a separate addendum for each tenant. Is this advisable (or possibly problematic?) given the fact the original lease has all 3 of their names on it and refers to them collectively as "THE TENANT"?

  2. #2
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    Mar 2013
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    Default Re: Can I Create a Separate Addendum for Each Tenant

    No, it's absolutely the wrong way to go about it. You'd be cruisin for a bruisin.

    I was a landlord for 20 years with three rentals.

    What you are considering is the kiss of death.

    Here's how I handled roommate tenants (in writing, a copy handed to each).

    "Dear tenants, I note that you are having trouble with each other. Please be advised that I don't care. The three of you are jointly and severally liable for the lease until it's expiration. One of you leaves, the others pick up the slack. Any of you damage my property and you all pay for it. Be late on the rent and you all get evicted and the eviction goes on your credit reports. Nobody gets any of the security deposit back until the expiration of the lease and the property is returned to me in the same condition that it was when you rented it. Breach the lease and I will sue all of you together, no matter who is to blame, and I will trash your credit and garnish your pay for as long as it takes to compensate me. I remind you that judgments in Colorado are good for 20 years. Now, work out your problems and leave me out of it. Respectfully, your landlord."

    Do anything else and you'll be back here in six months sobbing "What are my rights?"

    You've been warned.

  3. #3
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    Jan 2017
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    Default Re: Can I Create a Separate Addendum for Each Tenant

    Yikes! Warning received. I like your style!! So just for some clarification, does the kiss of death come just by virtue of the fact that I'm even considering allowing them to terminate the lease early? or is the separate addendum for each tenant problematic as well?

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Can I Create a Separate Addendum for Each Tenant

    Thinking about it is harmless.

    Doing it is the killer.

    You can't possibly create three separate agreements that considers all the possibilities.

    Worse, having three separate agreements means you have to go after each one separately instead of naming all three in a single lawsuit. I prefer having all of my birds in one hand rather than let them fly around where I have to catch them one at a time.

    Besides, they can sign the Magna damned Carta and turn around and leave without complying with any of it.

    I don't know how long you've been a landlord or if you've ever been burned by tenants but no good comes of trying to get involved in their issues.

    They chose the roommate route, now they get to live with the consequences.

  5. #5
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    Default Re: Can a Landlord Create a Separate Addendum for Each Tenant

    Quote Quoting dave0
    View Post
    My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Colorado

    I own an investment property in Denver, CO that is currently occupied by 3 tenants who have all had some sort of falling out and as such want to terminate their lease early. The last thing I want is a houseful of people at each other's throats, so I have agreed to work with each tenant individually with respect to when that specific tenant will vacate and how much in prorated rent and fees they will be responsible for. Once everything is figured out, I will have to create an addendum to their current lease to spell it all out. Since none of them are on speaking terms and all of the agreements we could potentially arrive at could have drastically different terms, it feels like the right way to go about this is to create a separate addendum for each tenant. Is this advisable (or possibly problematic?) given the fact the original lease has all 3 of their names on it and refers to them collectively as "THE TENANT"?
    I cannot disagree with anything that adjusterjack said, but it is still possible to work with them separately in terms of receiving rent payments and paying out security deposits, as long as you make it crystal clear to them that all three will continue to be held responsible for everything.

  6. #6
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    Default Re: Can a Landlord Create a Separate Addendum for Each Tenant

    Quote Quoting llworking
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    I cannot disagree with anything that adjusterjack said, but it is still possible to work with them separately in terms of receiving rent payments and paying out security deposits, as long as you make it crystal clear to them that all three will continue to be held responsible for everything.
    Where tenants are jointly responsible for rent and damages, a landlord should not do anything that might make them only severally liable, finding himself down the road unable to evict the paying tenants when one fails to pay a separate share, or struggling to prove who should be held liable for damages that all deny causing when demanding separate security deposit refunds.

    Certainly, it is possible for a landlord to accept multiple rent payments from roommates that add up to the total amount of rent, but the landlord is best served by leaving the manner in which the division occurs to the tenants, and limiting his own role to to expecting them to collectively pay 100% of the rent, on time, each month.

    The tenants can similarly agree between themselves how a damage deposit is to be refunded, and ask the landlord to return the deposit as agreed (after payment for damages). The landlord could agree to issue separate checks, if he was reasonably certain that the agreement presented was valid and binding, but would also have the right to say, "I'll issue a refund in accord with the terms of the lease, and you can divide it between yourselves when you deposit the check."

  7. #7
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    Jan 2017
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    Default Re: Can a Landlord Create a Separate Addendum for Each Tenant

    We have all agreed that everyone will be at their new place by the end of May 2017 and they will have paid me May's full rent (and early termination fees) before they are presented with the addendums I'm proposing. The addendums would state the date each will vacate and how much of a refund for May's prorated rent each will receive when they do leave. I get it that they would no longer be jointly liable for rent, but would they still be jointly liable for their security deposit as stated in the original lease?

  8. #8
    Join Date
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    Default Re: Can a Landlord Create a Separate Addendum for Each Tenant

    Quote Quoting dave0
    View Post
    We have all agreed that everyone will be at their new place by the end of May 2017 and they will have paid me May's full rent (and early termination fees) before they are presented with the addendums I'm proposing. The addendums would state the date each will vacate and how much of a refund for May's prorated rent each will receive when they do leave. I get it that they would no longer be jointly liable for rent, but would they still be jointly liable for their security deposit as stated in the original lease?
    Don't do the addendums. Feel free to let each of them know what you expect from them individually, but make it clear to each one of them that you will hold all of them equally liable under the terms of the lease.

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