Both my former roommate and I were on a lease for our apartment. After a few months, he moved out and subleased the apartment. He told me the leasing office knew, and had confirmed all this. He didn't tell me this until the day before he intended to leave.
The next day, I came home and found a new guy already in the home. I went to the leasing office, because they weren't open the previous day, and asked them about the sublease. They had no idea what I was talking about. Subleasing is against the contract if it isn't pre-approved by the leasing office. Because my roommate hadn't approved it, they said they could go after both of us for having a sub-leaser in the home. The other option was to sign the former roommate off the lease and have the sub-leaser sign it. According to the agreement, in writing from my roommate, he promised the sub-leaser he wouldn't have to sign any papers. Because of this, the guy said he would just start looking for a new place because he didn't want to get me in trouble. Because he wouldn't sign, the office gave me a notice to have him removed in three days.
The day I received the notice, the sub-leaser had already went back up to San Francisco (300 miles) for the week to grab some more things and handle other business. There was no way to contact him to let him know about the move out. I talked to the lawyer for the leasing apartment office and told him about it, and he just warned me to let him know as soon as he got back.
When the sub-leaser came back, I told him. He's a really sweet guy and had already displayed frustrations on how the former roommate put me in this situation. Because he came back so late, I later learned that the leasing office had already started the eviction process against both me and my former roommate.
When contacting their lawyer, he sympathized somewhat about the situation and told me who would see if the leasing office could just drop it, but I'd have to be out of the apartment in 6 days. I now have to be out of here tomorrow and luckily have a friend helping me move into a temporary place tonight. I still don't know if the lawyer was able to get the leasing office to drop it because he's not available for the weekend and holidays.
The sub-leaser had tried to talk to the other roommate about this, but he could never get him to respond. I've tried to talk to him about what's going on, but he kept lying, saying he would talk to the office and fix it, but never would. He generally just doesn't care.
If they end up putting an eviction on my record, can I fight it and go after my roommate? Even if they don't, can I go after my roommate for emotional distress. Since this mess has gone on, I've had excessive headaches, loss of sleep and hunger, feelings of depression/anxiety, throwing up (don't know why), and sore muscles.
Tags: