Changing Lease Terms due to Tenant Divorce in CA

[Kieran Mazzola]

  Hi all.  I'm looking for thoughts and advice on a situation.  My tenants in California have filed for divorce.  The original plan that they asked for was to end their lease early, about 6 months.  He moved out to an apartment after she filed for the divorce and she wanted to find something with cheaper rent in the same town to keep the children in the same schools.  I had no real problem with her leaving early, especially if she though she would have a hard time making the rent.   The rental market in the area is good, and new tenants shouldn't have been hard to find.  

  Today we contacted her to start arranging good times for some prospective new tenants to see the house.  Her reply was that she met with her lawyer today and she wanted to keep the current lease and was going to stay in the house because moving the children mid-year was not a good idea.  

  So having her stay means that I don't have to turn over tenants until the original lease end - Great ...maybe.

Her original thought that she need a cheaper rental was, in my opinion, changed by meeting with her lawyer.  I figure that the lawyer is going to go after the husband to make sure that the wife and children can stay in the house.  There's probably not a ton of divorce lawyers in the forums, does this sound like something that might happen?

She wants to "change the lease" to remove his name from the lease.  Everything I've read about changing the terms of a lease has to do with raising the rent, or no longer allowing pets, etc. and hasn't really helped giving me a real sense of what to do on this situation.  If both the husband and wife agree to remove him from the lease then I figure it shouldn't be a big deal to just change the lease.  I should probably get it in writing from the husband that he is OK with changing the terms, right? 

  I'm still concerned about how she is paying for the rent when she originally had concerns about it.  I do plan to ask her in my follow up but I wanted to post here and get any thoughts before I got deep into the conversation with her.  That said, she/they have paid on time, every month for 18 months, and apparently he moved out several months ago, so there is must be some arrangement between them that is working currently.

 Thanks in advance for any ideas and your thoughts.  Isn't this fun?  

[Nathan Gesner]

This is pretty simple as long as you get it in writing and are clear about the terms.  I have a form that includes:

1. Name of departing tenant and their move-out date

2. Departing tenant signs a statement that they have no responsibilities regarding the property but they also have no rights. If they want half the deposit back, that's between them and the remaining tenant.

3. Remaining tenant must take full responsibility for the condition of the home, payment of rent, and other terms of the lease. They can't move out six months later and blame property damage on the ex-spouse.

This document should clearly explain what happens with each party and then it MUST be signed by all parties to ensure it is binding.