Landlord Question and Answer Forum

We are signed to a month to month lease and have had a subtenant that moved in with us. He is not signed onto the lease but we were allowed to have another tenant as stated on the lease. There is only a verbal agreement with this tenant he has only ever paid in cash and has no reciepts for rent payed. All utilities are also under our names. Five months ago this tenant allowed another person to move in without our consent. We later verbally agreed that he pay more in rent and utilities if she failed to move. His guest has harrassed us and we have had complaints from management about them. For these reasons we decided to move out. We gave the landlord a written 30 day notice as well as this tenant. We taped it to the door of the room he rents. He has now threatened that he is getting a lawyer and that we cannot move or shut the utilities because he has no where else to go and that we are going to have to pay his rent for the next 3-6 months. What are my legal rights and obligations in this matter? If we move and he does not leave is it our responsibility to evict him or the landlord's? Can I shut off the utilities, put them in his name, or fail to pay them so they will eventually get shut off? Can I change the locks?

Generally speaking, especially if there is a "joint and several" clause, which means all tenants stand alone and are counted together. This means that no matter what anyone else does that is listed as a tenant, everyone is responsible as well as if partial rent is paid, everyone is still responsible for the remaining even though that party may have paid for the rent already.

Posted by Donna , NC on Monday, November 21, 2011