I live in an apartment with 4 other roommates. Back in April, we moved in a new girl to replace another girl. New girl is not on the lease but the tenants knows she lives here. As long as the rent is paid, he's ok with it. BUT, she just finished paying July rent yesterday (august 5th) and the lanldord had sent us an email that he had cc'd to his lawyer which is understandable. The 3 of us (the other roommates) have been having problems with her. We all decided that we want her to leave asap; she says that if she leaves she wants her money back for the month of August ($650). But the month has started; she's still here. So do we deducted the rate for each day she's here in August from what we give her back or do we give her nothing back because the month has started? We really don't want her to stay, she tried to fight me the other and I'm a much smaller girl than her, I don't feel safe and we're still not even sure she has paid the last portion of July rent that she owed (she was supposed to do that yesterday). On Monday august 3rd, the landlord got finally got $500 from her for July rent, but there's still the remaining $150 that she was supposed to mail to him yesterday. Anyway, my question is: If we can get her to agree to leave soon, she paid the last month (august) when she moved in, do we owe her anything? If so, what? thank you so much
Submitted by myriam917 on Thu, 08/06/2009 - 09:52
Editor's Response
I'll put aside the issues of criminal charges (assault/battery) and restraining orders. However, sub-tenants have pretty much the same rights as tenants. She is entitled to proper notice before being evicted. If you can reach some sort of amicable agreement where she only pays for the days she is in the unit and agrees to leave, great. Otherwise, I would caution you against any type of self-help eviction and encourage you to serve her with a 30 day notice to quit or--if she owes rent--a 14 day notice to quit.