I have entered a one year lease contract in an appartment shared by three persons lest September. I had to move out of the appartment two months ahead of the end of the lease contract. While I know that I am responsible for paying the rent for the last two remaining months of my lease period, I am trying to sub-let my room for this time to (partly) cover the rent.
Although I have found several persons interested in sub-renting the room, my roommate (who hold the lease for the appartment - I am only sub-renting) systematically refuses to accept them in the house. All candidates were by all means accptable in terms of renting history and other references and would have moved in if it wasn't for the refusal of my roommate. Can I hold her responsible for the loss of the two months rent? Do I still have to pay the rent for these months?
Submitted by patrickm on Sat, 07/11/2009 - 14:58
Editor's Response
That is interesting. I am not sure if a housing court judge would impute the duty to make good faith efforts to replace a tenant who breaches (a duty MA law places on landlords) to the leaseholder in your situation. I am not suggesting that you should do this, but if I understand the facts, your roommate is on the lease and not you. If that is the case, the landlord will sue the roommate if all the rent is not paid and the roommate will have to pay your portion of the rent and then try to sue you to collect the money. I suppose, at that point, you could make your argument to the judge that you presented good candidates and your roommate breached her duty to consider those candidates. Good luck.