Is it normal for a lease to require you to pay the rent for your housemates if they don't pay their share? I'm looking for an apartment and just noticed this on the unsigned lease draft. Not sure I'm comfortable with that considering that I just met the people I would be living with. (Of course with medical school potentially in my future, I want to maintain good credit so that I can get private loans if necessary. In my case that would have to be without a cosigner since I grew up in foster care unadopted.)
Question for those living with housemates
- Thread starter Gauss44
- Start date
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2005
- Messages
- 27,757
- Reaction score
- 51,574
Yes. This is standard. If the rent is not paid, you will be evicted. If a roommate didn't pay, you'd have to pay the whole nut or you would be evicted. Don't share with someone you don't trust to pay their share in full and on time.
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2013
- Messages
- 8,597
- Reaction score
- 19,854
Yes this is perfectly normal. If you are renting a house then the lease is probably for the entire house, meaning you are responsible for a lump sum and not just your share.
Room with people you trust?
Room with people you trust?
- Joined
- Jan 21, 2016
- Messages
- 12,432
- Reaction score
- 21,036
If you are looking in an area with lots of college students, you may be able to find apartment complexes which will let each tenant be responsible for his share only. Look for leases "by the bedroom".
This is the norm in leasing. Finding an accommodation that will allow you to hold onto the lease paying your part of the rent even if your roommate(s) move out is rare. I would suggest signing a roommate agreement at the beginning so that you have in writing somewhere from all persons involved that they are still responsible for rent payments if they move out before the lease end date. If it comes down to it, that document would really help make your case in small claims court. Otherwise, you could lose out on thousands of dollars of rent payments and fees.
