Divorced couple, one moves out

[Scotty Gifford]

A couple signed the lease last December, around September, the woman moved out.

She called in October asking for her deposit back. I told her that because her husband and her are still on the lease she was out of luck until then and he moved out as well. Now December is rolling around she is asking for her deposit back. The husband wishes to stay.

As long as he is able to pay, I am happy with him in the house.

The question is how do you handle the situation.

Move the husband to a month to month? A new one year with just him?

What about the deposit?

[Account Closed]

I'd move him to a month to month, because there is usually drama with divorcing couples.  If you have him on a month to month and you get tired of drama, you can just give him notice to move out.  Odds are, she may move in and out, though, but I wouldn't put her back on the lease.  

What I'd do is suggest she may be better off to let her security deposit go, in exchange for being taken off the lease, which would protect her from being required to pay rent or be sued if there were damages that the security didn't cover, etc.  In other words, she'd be basically buying out of her responsibilities on the lease, by letting the security deposit go.

You just need to get it in writing, whatever their agreement is.  I've done this with roommates who want to move out.  I normally told them I keep the security deposit until everyone moves out.  And I suggesedt to them that they might want to write up an agreement between themselves if the remaining tenants want to pay the leaving tenant some money toward their portion of the security deposit, or if they want to negotiate an exchange of letting the security deposit go in order to get out of any liability on the lease.  I'd write something up for them, if they wanted my help, and get them all to sign it.