man, I may get sued.

I and my roommate signed this joint lease for this apartment, each of us of course responsible for half of the entire rent. now he is moving to some other place but he pledges that he will take care the rent, worse comes to worst if he doesn't pay the rent, and we get sued by the landlord, will I get in trouble because of my status ? and who will likely be paying for the rent ? (remember this is a joint lease). I have read stories that people showed up in court room for breaking policies/laws like speeding tickets or taking trains without paying etc... I think my offense seems minimal ? or not even a offense?

What state are you in?

Read your lease over, does it allow for you to find a sublettor?

Either way if you break the lease i think the landlord would only be able to collect for what they lost out on, i.e. they have to try to find a new tenant and they can collect from you rent for however many months it reasonably took them to find another tenant.

Oh and it'll be a civil suit (small claims) if it ever gets that far, not much you'll have to worry about in terms of your status or having committed an "offense".

All that said... talk to an attorney, don't take legal advice from an online forum.

I'm in PA.
thank you quaker.
if this gets worse it will be a matter of $3400 dollars of payment. I think anything that money can solve is not a big problem. But I hope he will pay for it.

you could always stealthily move out during the night. being evicted or breaching a contract ruins your credit, but you don't have one anyways!

^^^LOL I wouldnt do that...

I might have to exit from my 3rd floor windows with all my furnitures and stuff, you got anything lesser dramatic than that?

best way to settle this: Judge Judy.

Funny. Hehe


She will chew him up and spit him out.

i have a quick question some might be able to awnser . . first im new to this so i dont know how to make my own thread. . second im mexican my perents put my application for my green card in 2005 as soon as they got there permanet residence. how long would i have to wait ? . .. im 21 know and im unmarried and is going to college . thank you .... and my appologies for going off topic . ..

I second what Quaker says. BTW, you won't get sued (the costs for going to trial is often not worthwhile- your landlord is just a guy that owns property and wants to collect a passive income), though you may be evicted if you don't cover the rent.

And BTW, I don't think rent collection is recorded on one's credit record- only debts (and the monthly collections for those debts) to major institutions are recorded- this would be credit cards, mortgages, etc.

I wouldn't count on your old roommate paying up the rent. That's just how the cookie crumbles... You would best be served to get another roommate to cover the difference.