What to do if your roommate stops paying rent
Frequently, when someone moves out early, the remaining tenants must cover the entire rent. Search the latest rental listings at RealEstate.Boston.com.
When Hannah Garcia, 22, had to move out of her Watertown house before her lease was up, she faced a difficult choice: continue paying rent until her lease ends in August or leave her roommates to scramble and find the money themselves.
Not wanting to stress out her former roommates, Garcia continued paying rent despite living with family in Texas.
Her roommates were lucky. Frequently, when someone moves out early, the remaining tenants are forced to cover the entire rent.
Doug Quattrochi, executive director of MassLandlords, an advocacy group, said renters’ options are limited when this happens. “It’s a really common mess,’’ Quattrochi said, explaining that in most cases when a roommate stops paying rent, the responsibility falls on the other tenants.
Jason M. Rawlins, a managing attorney at Rawlins Asack LLC in Bridgewater, said that on many leases, tenants are each responsible for the rent, regardless of the breakdown.
One of the most common solutions is finding a new roommate, but some leases do not allow this. In order for a roommate to be replaced, the lease must allow for subletting. Some leases forbid subletting or allow it only at the landlord’s discretion, Rawlins said, so it’s important to understand the lease fully.
For more than a month, Garcia has been on the hunt for someone to take her spot — and assume her financial responsibilities — in the Watertown house. Garcia and her roommates have been searching, mostly via Facebook and word of mouth. Garcia first posted on Facebook at the beginning of January, but had no one commit yet as of press time.
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Quattrochi said that if someone is planning on moving out, they should tell their roommates and landlord immediately.
Garcia also emphasized the need to be proactive, suggesting that one should start the roommate search as soon as possible — even before knowing for certain whether there’s going to be a vacancy. — even before knowing for certain whether there’s going to be a vacancy. “I would have rather had something solid and then have to unfortunately say, ‘I’m sorry, I changed my mind,’ than be in this much debt every month for a place I’m not living in,’’ Garcia said.
In most cases, when a roommate is being replaced, the old roommate will have to put in writing that they are moving out, the landlord will approve or deny a new tenant, and the new roommate group will sign a new lease as well as an agreement that says the old lease is no longer valid, Quattrochi said.
Quattrochi recommended open and honest communication with the landlord. Depending on the situation and how flexible the landlords are, they may allow tenants to move out early, “forgiving’’ them for the rest of their lease so they can find housing elsewhere, as long as they pay rent until the landlord finds another tenant. But landlords are under no obligation to do this, he said.
Alternatively, the remaining tenants can take legal action against a roommate who is not paying rent. Lee Goldstein, a partner in the community law office of Goldstein & Feuer in Cambridge, said small claims court is a fairly inexpensive and efficient way of pursuing legal action against a roommate. The remaining tenants could take the former roommate to small claims court for disputes under $7,000 or they could sue for more. In many cases, though, this leads to other challenges, because oftentimes people move out of their apartments early because they are out of money.
Rawlins recommended taking preventative measures, such as sitting down with a lawyer to review the lease before signing, or, alternatively, having an attorney draft the lease. This allows tenants to understand fully the limitations and flexibilities of their lease.
“The most important time to address [these issues] is before they happen,’’ Rawlins said.
Rawlins also said that a possible, yet uncommon solution is to create an indemnification contract when the roommates sign a lease. This could state that each tenant is responsible for a certain amount of the rent, and if an individual fails to pay that amount and the landlord evicts the group, the other tenants have the right to file suit against the individual. This can lead to more complications, however, Rawlins added, because if tenants are defending themselves in court from eviction, they will have to file suit against their former roommate as well, creating multiple lawsuits out of a single problem.
“What I’d really recommend is just make sure you choose your roommates wisely,’’ Rawlins said. “That’s the best piece of advice I can give.’’
For now, though, the problem persists.
“We’re going to continue to get folks who have to band together to form a household, but they’re not related,’’ Quattrochi said. “They’re not a family. They’re not sticking together. They’re not gonna live together forever. So there’s gonna be constantly this tension, where one person’s ready to go somewhere else in their life and the other folks are not yet.’’
Dylan Dhindsa can be reached at [email protected]. Subscribe to the Globe’s free real estate newsletter — our weekly digest on buying, selling, and design — at pages.email.bostonglobe.com/AddressSignUp. Follow us on Twitter @GlobeHomes and Boston.com on Facebook.
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