New Joint Tenant Worries

[Joan C.]

Hi,

I rent my 4 bedroom house to 4 guys, joint and several, two of them left earlier, I have the remaining tenant screen the candidate first, then I qualify the prospective tenant with my rental criteria including 3 x income and two year work history.

One new tenant qualified, the second one is not, but the remaining tenant do not w want to look for new one, since it takes time and holiday is around the corner.

since remaining tenants would need to pay for the whole month rent, not just their portions, I am worrying that the 4th tenant might not able to pay the rent, if one or two tenant moving out after 6 month's lease, incoming new tenant might not want to responsible for someone who is not qualified.

My current tenants argue that their combined income meet the 3 x income requirement, they can lower the portion of rent just for these two incoming tenants, so that they can take the one with lower income, obviously they just want to twist the number while first new tenant pay regular portion, and the non-qualified one was evaluated based on the regular portion as well.

now the question is: can landlord require the proof of future actual rent each co-tenant pays? 

More importantly, if one or more tenant move out 6 months after new lease end (currently on month to month), the lower income one or more have nowhere to go, can I hold the current tenants accountable since they insist to bring on the non-qualified one?

Thanks