Roomate My roomate moved out while I was at a festival.

[poflinn]

Jurisdiction

Missouri

My roomate and I have been living in our apt going on 4 years. We are both on the lease. On June 2nd 2017 were at a festival he told me he was going to the restromm and never came back. After 2 hours of looking, calling and waited on him. I drove home to find all his stuff had been moved out. He did this in June and our lease does not end until Dec. He didn't make contact with me for over a week and then it has been hit and miss. We talked and I agreed if he gave me some money once a week I would not try to take this to court. He has only given me 70.00 so far. I am paying 1000.00 a month for this place and Im barely makin it. He never contacts me when I ask for the money and at the end he will owe me over 3000.00. Do I have a case?

 

[zddoodah]

Do I have a case?

A case of what? If you're asking whether, after the lease expires and you move to a less expensive place, you could successfully sue your former roommate for 1/2 of the rent from July through December, the answer is probably. Of course, getting a judgment might not do you any good. Do you know where he now lives? Do you know where he works or banks? If not, how will you enforce the judgment?

You might consider trying to find a subtenant to live in this guy's former room for the rest of the lease term.

 

[adjusterjack]

He never contacts me when I ask for the money and at the end he will owe me over 3000.00.

Maybe not.

In American contract law the non-breaching party must mitigate his damages. In your case that means that you must find yourself a replacement roommate as soon as reasonably possible.

Then you'd be entitled to indemnification from the time your roommate breached your contract with him through the time you got a new roommate.

If you waited until the end of the lease term and sued him for the full amount, he could defend based on lack of mitigation and you could only end up with a small part of the amount based on what the judge decides that you should have done and when you should have done it.

 

[army judge]

My roomate and I have been living in our apt going on 4 years. We are both on the lease. On June 2nd 2017 were at a festival he told me he was going to the restromm and never came back. After 2 hours of looking, calling and waited on him. I drove home to find all his stuff had been moved out. He did this in June and our lease does not end until Dec. He didn't make contact with me for over a week and then it has been hit and miss. We talked and I agreed if he gave me some money once a week I would not try to take this to court. He has only given me 70.00 so far. I am paying 1000.00 a month for this place and Im barely makin it. He never contacts me when I ask for the money and at the end he will owe me over 3000.00. Do I have a case?

Sure, if you BELIEVE someone owes you money, you take the matter to court.

Will you prevail?

Whether you prevail depends upon many things.

Let's say that you DO prevail.

You don't get the money.

You get a judgment, let's call it a "Somebody owes me $3,000 order".

Once you receive the "Somebody owes me $3,000 order", you must endeavor to hunt down SOMEBODY and see what assets he possesses against which you can have the sheriff levy against or attach.


Very few people who receive their "Somebody owes me $3,000 order" ever collects one thin dime of their "Somebody owes me $3,000 order".

Statistics reveal that fewer that 5% of people holding those "Somebody owes me $3,000 order" will ever see any money from their "Somebody owes me $3,000 order".

In your case, your SOMEBODY appears to be rather shady, cagey, and clever.

You can go to court, spend more money to pursue what you think your crafty dude owes you, pursuing the "Somebody owes me $3,000 order", only to never see a dollar of that "Somebody owes me $3,000 order".

You'll also be out the court costs and filing fees, which in MO run about $100, give or take.

Missouri Small Claims Court Handbook - FindLaw

 

[mightymoose]

Someone may have already pointed this out, but if you were both on the lease then each of you had an agreement with the landlord. By moving out early he has broken that agreement. Have you spoken with the landlord about it?
Yes, you are responsible for paying the rent in full know, but both of you always were. The landlord is the injured pay here. I'm not so sure you have a valid claim to make against the roommate.

 

[adjusterjack]

Someone may have already pointed this out, but if you were both on the lease then each of you had an agreement with the landlord. By moving out early he has broken that agreement. Have you spoken with the landlord about it?

Waste of time. As a former landlord let me give you the landlord's point of view.

"Oh, your roommate moved out. Too bad. As long as you pay all the rent it has nothing to do with me. When you don't pay all the rent, I'll evict and sue both of you, but I'll collect from whichever one of you has gettable money when I catch up to you."

Yes, you are responsible for paying the rent in full know, but both of you always were. The landlord is the injured party here. I'm not so sure you have a valid claim to make against the roommate.

Of course he does. He and the roommate have an agreement to share the rent and expenses. That's a contract between the two of them (though not a landlord tenant relationship). The roommate breached the contract. The OP has to pay the roommate's share of the rent. The OP has a claim against the roommate for indemnification subject to the OP's mitigation of damages.

 

[zddoodah]

if you were both on the lease then each of you had an agreement with the landlord. By moving out early he has broken that agreement.
Have you spoken with the landlord about it?

Not so. I have never seen a residential lease that requires the tenant(s) actually to occupy the premises. Most residential leases impose on the tenant(s) only two basic duties: (1) pay rent; and (2) do not permit waste. As long as those two things are being done, it doesn't matter if one co-tenant moves out. The breach occurs when the co-tenants don't pay the rent in full. If the co-tenant who moved out doesn't pay his share such that the remaining co-tenant has to pay all of the rent, then the moving co-tenant has breached an express or implied agreement with the remaining co-tenant, but it's of no concern to the landlord.

Have you spoken with the landlord about it?
Yes, you are responsible for paying the rent in full know, but both of you always were. The landlord is the injured pay here. I'm not so sure you have a valid claim to make against the roommate.

As noted, the landlord isn't injured until and unless the rent doesn't get paid. If it doesn't get paid, the landlord will evict both co-tenants and sue them both for all of the unpaid rent.