Rental situation turns dangerous

Q: Until recently, my daughter was in a rental situation that was downright dangerous. Her roommates turned out to be inconsiderate and mean, and when they drank, they were violent. My daughter was afraid for her safety and moved out, after explaining the situation to the landlord and giving him the keys. The roommates are demanding that she pay her share of the rent, and the landlord doesn't want to get involved. What should we do? --Eric S.

A: Let's start with the basics. Assuming all roommates are on the lease, each one is "jointly and severally" responsible for the rent. If a roommate leaves, this means that the landlord can demand the rent from those who remain. As far as the landlord is concerned, if the remaining residents can cover the rent, what does he care if one has left? If the remaining roommates are managing to pay the rent, that's probably why the landlord is unconcerned.

Now, suppose the remaining residents can't come up with the whole rent, and haven't proposed a new roommate to take your daughter's place: The landlord will give them a pay-or-quit notice, and evict them if they do neither. He can't name your daughter in an eviction lawsuit, because she is already gone. Practically speaking, if the roommates stay and go through an eviction lawsuit, it's their names on the pleadings, not your daughter's. Your daughter remains just as responsible as any of the tenants for the rent, but in order to get it from her, the landlord would have to go after her in small claims court. Why bother, when there is a quicker method at hand -- the eviction process -- which will accomplish the landlord's twin goals: to quickly get non-rent-paying tenants out of the property, and a judgment for past rent, if there is any.

Leaving under these circumstances does have a downside, however. Your daughter may get a negative review from this landlord when she goes to get another rental. That's why it's a good idea to approach the landlord and explain that it isn't safe for her to remain. At this point, you have put the landlord on notice that there's a dangerous situation on his property, and under the laws of most states, he now has a duty to take reasonable steps to protect the tenant at risk. In this situation, the reasonable response is to let your daughter leave legally by formally terminating her rental agreement. This situation is akin to the relatively new domestic violence laws, which some 20 states now have on the books. Landlords in these states are obliged to let the victim move (among other things) when there's a bona fide (and reported) situation of domestic violence.

Keep in mind that the landlord, if he's handling his own evictions, might name your daughter in an eviction proceeding, not realizing that he shouldn't. She can get out of the lawsuit, but it will require a lawyer. And there will be a record of her having been named in the suit. This notation in her rental history could be a problem down the line, because no law forbids a landlord from automatically rejecting an applicant who has an eviction in her past, even one that was dismissed by the court or that she righteously won.

Finally, it's possible (though unlikely) that your daughter's ex-roommates would take her to small claims court for her share of the rent. Her defense could be that their actions effectively shut her out of the rental, making it impossible for her to live there. In other words, such outrageous behavior should destroy the roommates' right to insist on your daughter's rent contribution. Of course, a dispute like this will be a matter of what they say against what she says. If you find yourselves in this situation, marshal as much evidence of the roommates' rowdy and violent behavior as you can find (such as reports from disturbed neighbors). ...CONTINUED

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