I co-signed a 1 year lease for my 18 year old son who was moving in with his 21 year old friend. His friend's mother also co-signed. My son and his friend moved from here in Delaware into the 2 BR apartment in Texas in June, 2007. Just before moving, my son had a physical to try to diagnose some medical problems. Right after they moved to Texas, the doctor advised that more tests were needed and we flew him home. He stayed home for the rest of June and almost the entire month of July, having more tests. He flew back down at the end of July and we found out that he needed more tests and treatment. Long story short: he needs to be home and to get medical treatment here. In order to smooth the transition, my son and I went about the process of identifying candidates for new roommates. In a short amount of time, we found over 10 good candidates and we notified the landlord of his intent to vacate within 30 days and providing a list of potential roommates. The landlord said that it was up to my son and his friend to work the roommate situation out but that he would be willing to screen candidates for credit-worthiness as long as they were acceptable to my son's friend as a roommate. He also put both boys on notice that they are jointly and severally responsible for the total payment of the lease, and that if the full payment is not made then my son's friend would be evicted. We can not afford (especially with the extra medical bills) to continue to pay the lease. The problem is that the father of my son's friend REFUSES to allow new roommates to be considered. He says that if we do not pay the lease and his son gets evicted that he will sue us for big $$! He says that if the landlord allows a new roommate to be put in my son's place that he will sue the landlord. He wants for us to pay and for the extra room to go empty - for the rest of the 9 months. I'm appealing to this board to see if there's any legal recourse (and of course we don't have the money for a lawyer). Does the duty to mitigate that a landlord has apply to a roommate in this situation? Can the father really insist that we pay all of the lease value and their son have the apartment to himself? Thanks in advance for any advice!

