Handling Tenants that Break UP and 1 individual moves out???

[Cassidy Burns]

Hi BP,

Curious how others handle this situation? 

Tenant A was the main point of contact and main individual who made rent payments, communication, etc.  Tenant B lived in the house and was on the lease as well.  Tenant A now has moved out and is trying to put all responsibilities on Tenant B and is wanting to be taken off of the lease.  Lease is up September 1st. 

Thoughts on best way to handle this? 

Thank you in advance!

[Sakina Aller]

Happened to me. If the next month rent is late or they try to pay partial then u know they can’t afford to be there alone. Make them a deal to leave within 30 days and u won’t sue for the lease balance because u will evict if they can’t pay on time. Tenant A cannot be taken off the lease. 

[Theresa Harris]

Two options: 1) let them out of the lease, 2) have Tenant B take over the lease provided they meet your requirements.  If you go with option 2,  you will need them to sort out the damage deposit.  Tenant B needs to pay Tenant A half of the deposit.  Then both of them sign off saying that the security deposit you have is now only from Tenant B.  Do not return any of the deposit to them as part of this lease change, it is up to them to sort out.

[Cassidy Burns]

@Sakina Aller Thank you for this.  This is how I responded as well.  Put the ball back in their court at first and going to see if that works, if not, i'll evict both for lack of payment.

Thanks again. 

[Stephen Glover]

@Cassidy Burns They are both equally responsible on lease.  Tenant A cannot leave the lease even if they physically leave the property.  You could allow Tenant B to stay but only after they go through the screening process to see if they qualify on their own.  If they do not qualify on their own, you're back to square one.  If Tenant B finds another roommate that qualifies, then that's the only way Tenant A is removed from the lease. Otherwise, they are breaking the lease and if rent doesn't come in you'll start the eviction process.

Another more viable option is to agree that they both leave and are responsible for rent/utilities until a new tenant is placed.  You charge the tenant the leasing fee and get it rented to qualified tenants.

Throughout this process, there is a fee for your time, typically a lease administration fee or a re-leasing fee which should be in your lease.

Hopefully one of these options work for you.  We've done a variety of all of these, whatever ends up working.

[Marc Winter]

Do the words "jointly and severally" appear in your lease?  This kind of stuff happens all the time.  We do not let people "off the lease".  The lease is up when it is up unless they give us a proper notice (as per the lease) of early termination.

That being said, the real world doesn't work quite as smoothly as contractual law and your written lease might lead you to believe.  It gets quite a bit more messy.

There are several simple solutions already state in previous posts, but simple is not always easy.  You have a better feel and understanding for the subject tenants than anyone else on this site--cogitate about it and let us know what you end up doing.  Good luck!