<p>Need some help here...I am just reading my daughter's lease for next year. This clause kind of bothers me, just want to know if this is normal.
[quote]
. TENANTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR RENT. Tenants jointly and severally agree to pay the rent as herein provided. It is expressly understood that each Tenant is liable for the full amount of rent for the term of this agreement. In the event of default in the performance of this lease agreement by one or more of the tenants, landlord reserves the right to commence legal proceedings against the defaulting tenant, or all the tenants, and tenants will also be responsible for payment of Landlords legal fees for this action. In the event one or more of the occupants of this apartment shall go out of possession of the leased premises prior to the termination of this lease agreement, landlord reserves the right, but is not obligated to do so, to substitute another person or persons whom the remaining occupants agree to accept as co-tenant first.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The way I am reading it is if one tenant should default then the other tenant is responsible for the other tenant's rent. What's worse is the landlord would have the right to substitute another person that my daughter will need to accept as a new roommate. </p>
<p>If this is a standard clause then we would have no choice but to sign it if my daughter wants a place live, but if other landlords do not have such clause then I would want to negotiate.</p>
<p>well the 2nd part is like cornell. if the roommate leaves, he/she will be replaced by a random person.</p>
<p>the first part makes sense, you choose your set of people to live in an apartment, its your fault if one leaves. the landlord can’t take responsibility for that. I had a friend who was in a situation like that. her apartment mate just left and moved to antoher place and stopped paying rent for months. the other people had to pay it for her. they ended up sueing their friend who left. i dont know how that went</p>
<p>even though the lease states basically that the other roommate left on the lease (roomie 1) will be responsible for the entire lease, the landlord would go against the person who left the lease (roomie 2). it is illegal to break a lease in NY, so whether roomie 2 goes abroad, leaves cornell, or [god forbid] happens to pass away, roomie 2’s estate (i.e. 2’ family) is still responsible for the lease. the landlord understands that roomie 1 cannot foot the entire bill, so they will go to make sure roomie 2 pays one way or another (whether it means roomie 2 continuing to pay if they live their or not or getting a subletter)</p>
<p>something like that was on my lease last year. and i was having a little bit of roommate troubles (i.e. she didnt know if she was going abroad, etc etc, typical housing drama) and thats how my landlord explained it to me.</p>
<p>hope that wasnt too confusing! i hope your daughter loves her big girl apartment :)</p>
<p>CU, what your landlord explained is not what the lease actually says, which is the full amount is due, and the landlord does not care who pays, all or just one.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Don’t matter. Roomie 1 could be liable anyway (the “severally” part) if Roomie 1 signs such a lease.</p>
<p>d was scheduled to do a study abroad semester. I know she needed to get find a “replacement” roommate. The good thing about Cornell is that there are many kids in a similar situation. So I think she found someone who was coming back from a fall semester study abroad to take her place.<br>
I believe there was some website at cornell that helped link kids up regarding apartment sublets. (may have been through study abroad site). So though it was a bit time consuming and a hassle–you can usually find someone willing to take over the lease for a semester.</p>
<p>I gotta admit, I was a bit nervous until she found her replacement as her lease also made it clear that her share of the rent was due the landlord regardless of whether she resided in the apartment or not.</p>
<p>I think what I am going to do is to have a separate contract with the roommate’s parents. The contract would be we are to guarantee our kid’s rent, and it would be our own responsibility to find a replacement roommate if there is any unexpected event where one must move out.</p>
<p>The way it is now the landlord has a contract with each tenant, but he wants each tenant to be responsible for each other. Legally we would have no recourse to the roommate if she should decide not to pay. I don’t see why it would be my daughter’s responsibility to find another roommate if her roommate wants to move out.</p>
<p>in my kid’s case- she knew beforehand as did her roommates that she was going to do a study abroad for the spring semester. She took it upon herself to “hunt” for her replacement. And we did plan to pay her rental share in the event she could not find another roommate. We had an “unwritten agreement” with the other 2 roommates that d’s rental share would be paid. In our case- it all worked out fine.</p>
<p>oldfort- just curious. Are one of the roommates leaving in the middle of the school year for study abroad etc. , or are you just protecting yourself in the event one of the roommates decides to move out- drop out etc?? If it is due to study abroad, I do believe there was some link to students who were looking for apartments upon return to campus (but that was a few years ago).</p>
<p>Maybe I am just being overly cautious. As we know many things could happen between now to 12-18 months from now. If we sign the lease now, this girl could decide to take a year off and finish her senior year a year later. Her parents could also run into financially difficulty and decide to have her drop out of the school. She could get sick where she’ll have to take some time off. With any of those events mentioned, if she should decide not to fulfill her end of the bargain, 1) my daughter(really us) could end up paying for the whole thing, 2) inconvience of looking for another roommate, 3) possibly with no place to live if we couldn’t afford to pay for roommate’s share, 4) get some psycho roommate that landlord has found.</p>
<p>As I was typing, the landlord just called me. We have agreed that I would only be guaranteeing my daughter’s portion of rent, she would have the right to sublet it to someone else if her roommate should default, but if she should choose not to deal with it then it would be the landlord’s responsibility to sublet it to someone else (and the person must be a Cornell student, and a female).</p>
<p>you are absolutely right to be cautious. In the “good old days” of 2007, it may not have been as much of a thought about a roommate leaving mid semester due to financial concerns- but with the current economy and high unemployment rates, some families may be rethinking their commitment to a cornell education vs. their own state U. </p>
<p>glad it’s working out.</p>
<p>wait till they look for the first post grad apartment. my kid lucked out so far- but I can’t tell you how many people she knows who lost their jobs and were having a tough time paying the rent.
And in NYC-- as parents we need to sign all these forms to guarantee that the landlord gets paid- no matter what.</p>
<p>I think those are fairly standard clauses. </p>
<p>My son, at Cornell, has signed similar leases. And he did have a roommate who left in the middle of spring semester '08 – dropped out. It was a 3BR apartment. I think the drop-out boy’s parents paid the rent, but the other parents and I split the extra third of the utilities.</p>
<p>I worked with a property management company for many years that was a huge provider of student housing. Nothing in NY though.</p>
<p>Basically, you either rent by the bedroom or rent by the unit. There are pros and cons to each.</p>
<p>if you rent out a unit by the bedroom. Then for the tenant’s, it is great financially. If a roommate leaves, it is only a problem for the owner “financially”. But for the tenant, it can be bad because they can rent out the room to whoever they want.</p>
<p>if you rent out the unit in a joint lease, then each person is jointly responsible. So, if a roomy bails, then it is up to the other roommates to either cover the lease or find a roommate.</p>
<p>Can’t blame the owner for wanting to get paid. Think about it. If they rented to one person and that person bailed, they would do whatever they could to rerent the unit. In this case, it just so happens, that unit is a bedroom.</p>
<p>Of course, best of all worlds is that roommates get together to fill a whole unit and then rent by the bedroom. No strangers and only responsible for their portion.</p>
<p>S’s off-campus lease also contains a “joint and several liability” clause. In addition to the signatures of the roommates, the landlord (one of the larger corporate-type landlords in Ithaca) required that the lease be guaranteed by the parent(s) of each roomate. The guaranty states that if one of the occupants should move out, the landlord could pursue his guarantor for the unpaid rent. Indirectly, this gives some protection for the remaining roomies and their parents.</p>