1 roommate out and the other not paying

[Michaela G.]

So, I have this situation: 

3 roommates - 1 couple and 1 friend. They all worked at the same place and made plenty of income. Always paid the rent on time. No problem the past 6 months. 

Yesterday I went by to give them something and the girlfriend is in a car, about to leave. She asks me how she can get out of the lease, because she is moving out, that she has broken up with her boyfriend and wouldn't be living there any longer as of yesterday. I told her that she couldn't be released, because she's in a 1-year lease. 

Well, I'm thinking, the other 2 guys make enough to keep it going. The boyfriend calls me a little while later and I say that I had spoken to the GF and that she moved and whether he'd be ok with handling the rent together with the friend. He tells me that the 'friend' hasn't gone to work in 3 months and is just sitting in his room and won't move out or do anything and that he and his GF have been carrying him and paying for everything and is there anything I can do.

I told him that I can't evict only one person, but that an eviction has to name everyone on the lease and thus he would have an eviction on his record as well. He tells me that he can take care of the rent himself, but that it would be late this month and he was going to split it up between paychecks. I told him that I can't accept partial payments and that he'll have to pay me once he has everything together, plus late fee. 

Well, I know this is not going to end well. There's no way this guy can keep up paying the rent by himself. He has children and child support as well and has a baby with the GF that now left. He's been a nice guy and good tenant and he's somewhat in a rock and hard place situation. 

Do I suggest to him that it's best if I just go an file for eviction, so that everyone gets out and he gets rid of the roommate and can start over and I get the house back? If it's not this month, then it'll likely be next month or the month after and since the freeloading roommate won't leave or pay, he can't bring in another roommate.  

I don't want to talk to the roommate, because I don't want to get in the middle of it. They all signed up and they have to figure it out between themselves. 

I had told him that I'd work with him this month, but thinking it over, I think it's just delaying the inevitable. 

What would you do?