Tenant has left and rent will be collected from his roommate

[Jason E. Chiara]

Today (5/4/2020) our tenant called to inform us that he will be vacating the unit and leave his roommate to assume responsibility of paying rent. The tenant was on a month-to-month lease (only orally recorded), of which arose from a written long-term lease from several years ago. We called our lawyer about it and he has informed us to take the rent from the roommate and establish a month-to-month lease recorded orally only. We have no records for the roommate, and we might as well be taking money from a stranger. I understand, money is important right now and a paying bills are a must. However, I wanted to get insight as what problems this may cause in the long-term (if any) once the current global situation is resolved.