Co-Lease question..Please help! 10pt

Question

Scenario: Two people co-sign on a renter's lease and have an agreement to pay all rent and utilities 50/50 throughout the duration of the lease. Randomly, one of the parties decides to move out and it has nothing to do with dissatisfaction with the living conditions or the other roommate. Are both parties still responsible for the rent? What about the utilities? Is the party who moved still required to pay half of the rent even though they don't necessarily live in the residence?

Answer 1

Legally they must pay.  In real life, they never do.  Whenever you rent with another person you must know that you have the ability to carry the rent by yourself. Start shopping for a roommate. /

Answer 2

By law they are bound by a contract ( the lease ). I'm sure you lease states that you have to give notice to vacate premises.  If your roommate didn't give proper notice to the landlord, and go thru the legal step with the landlord then the roommate is still responsible for half of all the bills including rent utilities, etc... The first thing I would do is to find a new roommate to help with the cost. I would ultimately file a case against the ex roommate for the loss.  It is a very legal way to handle it.

Answer 3

The landlords will continue to hold you liable for the entire rent if the missing roommate cannot be located. You will have to sue them in small claims court for what they owe you for the duration of the lease.