5 tenants, 1 wants out of lease

[Shawn Mcenteer]

I have 5 college guys in my rental.  So far they have been good tenants.  1 of the tenants wants to move out to move in with his girlfriend.  He has a replacement tenant that I am going to screen.  The tenants moving out had his dad co-sign. The tenant moving in will have his father co-sign for him.  I am looking for lease suggestion/ proper way to make the switch? How should I move forward assuming screening goes well?  My main concern is how I handle lease, do I create new one? edit existing one? Do I need all tenants to sign whatever I do? etc

[Michele Fischer]

I would do a new lease, which effectively releases the existing tenant and gets the new one added.  Make some reference to the original deposit walk through, note that deposits are not returned until all parties move out.  So  the new tenant should buy out the existing tenant for the deposit if needed, not your issue.

We do amendments to the existing lease when someone is leaving or when someone is being added as an authorized occupant, but do new paperwork when there is a new tenant.  Treat them all to coffee to get new signatures, insist on none of them dragging their feet to have the new lease completely valid from the get-go.