Transfering lease to one of the two tenants.

[Brett M.]

I have a 1 year lease that has matured into a month to month contract with two tentants.

One of the tenants has given me the 60 day notice that they will be moving. The other tenant would like to stay on the month to month lease and would still qualify by themselves.

What would be the cleanest way to do this?

I have never dealt with this before but was at first considering just signing a new lease with the 1 tenant that wants to stay but there will be no way for me to do a proper move out inspection with the tenant that plans on staying still moved in with their stuff in the way.

My next option I was considering was just transferring the whole contract to the tenant that wants to stay and making them solely responsible for the contract until  they move out.

[Colleen F.]

You can do an addendum to remove the leaving tenant. The security deposit settlement is typically between the 2 tenants in this situation and it rolls over to the new lease, this is stated in the addendum and it is signed off on by both tenants. You must get written consent when you do this from the leaving tenant.   

You can write a new month to month lease for the staying tenant and collect a new security deposit. In this case offer to do an inspection for any current issues acknowledging that anything after this inspection is the responsibility of the staying tenant. Send a letter to both tenants at the current address explaining deductions with refund.   Now the easiest way is after inspection if both tenants sign they will split the deposit evenly and just credit the staying tenant for their portion.  In all cases you need signatures of the leaving tenant and the staying tenant