College group wants to kick off one of their own off lease? Help

[Eric S.]

Hello BP community I am a landlord to single family home in a college area in Ohio. I have 6 ladies that all signed a lease and each have a guarantor. My lease states jointly and severally for each tenant and their guarantor. They all moved in August and here is where things get interesting. Here is the bottom line up front. One of the girls on the lease has not been living there for almost 2 months and I have been told she has not been paying for her part of the rent. I do not know for sure as we require one check from the entire party and the rent has been paid every month. One of the guarantors sent an email recently that they would like our company to retrieve the key from the tenant that is no longer there because of safety concerns. I have talked to both sides prior to this email - the lady and her parents who decided to move out the home and also tenants from the remaining the group that are still living there. I have stated that because she is still on the lease I can not just change the locks or demand her key. I have also stated to both groups that rent is required to be paid even if one or more members fail to pay. Obviously the remaining group still is not comfortable with this situation. Here is more detail of the situation paraphrased from correspondence No written agreement was reached in this issue between the tenant who left (or her guarantors) and the remaining tenants (or their guarantors)regarding transferring the responsibilities sharing as per the tenancy laws. The tenant who has left for the last two months is paying no rent; still the rent is being paid to on time. The most important issue here is that at the same time the defaulter tenant has not returned the keys to the tenants who are still occupying and paying the rent on time. The defaulter tenant has even come to the premises and removed some items from the house, which were co shared and co paid by all tenants with out even notifying any of the tenants regarding her intention. Considering the above scenario under the RC 5321 as a parent/legal guardian of a current tenant I am worried for the SAFETY of my daughter and other girls in the premises. With the keys still with a defaulter tenant I STRONGLY feel that the premises are not safe for the co tenants. And I am pretty sure that all the other tenants and their guardians STRONGLY feel the same. I would ask you to consider this scenario seriously and get the keys back from the defaulter tenant as soon as possible and thereby making the premises safe for all the remaining tenants as a landlord responsibility. Here are my questions I seen guidance and confirmation on? For one tenant to removed from the lease all the tenants need to agree to this including the one being removed correct? If the tenant that wants to be removed refused or can not be reach to sign termination of lease what can the group Or I do. If there is court order such as restraining order do I need to remove the tenant if so how would I do that? Also is the restraining order enough that I don't need to do anything I.e. If someone is on the lease or not they can't come to the house of someone they are be restrained from. As far as security and safety issues. At what point or documentation is required under Ohio must I take action. If there are threats or uncomfortableness that is local authorities issues not a landlord issue correct? Also do I have legal responsibility to communicate to guarantors which in this case mostly parents? I do so as I understand most parents care and are concerned with their kids, but our responsibility is to the tenants correct and guarantor is only there for fiscal responsibility if one or more tenants decide not to pay. Technically do we have responsibility to the guarantors to communicate to them at all be it repairs, showings, or any demands they may have. Thanks again and please let me know if you need any further clarification. I tried to keep it as straightforward as possible without listing specific grievances or drama as much as possible that the tenants have expressed to me.

[Ryan Mullin]

Yes you do need to communicate with the parents if they are on the lease.  However this is 100% a civil issue between the defaulting tenant and the remainder tenants.  They ALL signed an agreement and they need to live up to it.  They need a separate contract between them that mutually releases the defaulting tenant off the lease and this has to be ok'd by you the landlord:  IE; They must qualify with out that last tenant.  

Technically you don't have to do anything in this situation, but you probably want to work with all parties to reach an agreement.  Since there are so many roomies involved (and parents) Im sure they qualify with out the defaulting tenant.  If not you can require them to find another roommate that qualifies in order to get them off the lease. 

Remember that THEY chose to be roommates and they are all responsible for the lease. 

If the one non-paying tenant won't give up the key and is "stealing" from the house...  thats a court case / restraining order between them.  

Obviously I don't know Ohio laws this is just my opinion from dealing with this sort of thing in our market.  We had this happen recently with a boyfriend, girlfriend breakup...  They both ended up moving out.  Luckily Daddy co-signed and he paid until we found another tenant.  :) 

Best of luck!